Rand Paul Should Not Be Given a Pass on His Long Relationship With Alex Jones
I was amazed yesterday to read this article at Bloomberg by Dave Weigel about Rand Paul’s difficulties with the media, because Sen. Paul actually tries to pretend he barely knows who conspiracy lunatic Alex Jones is:
Paul’s careful presentation at rallies has contrasted with his media interviews, and with the attack ads from a hawkish 501(c)(4) that dig into interviews Paul gave years ago to the conspiracy-curious radio host Alex Jones. It was to Jones that Paul had said Iran posed “no threat” to America, for example. In an interview with Bloomberg News, asked whether he regretted talking to Jones, Paul demurred.
“I’ve been pretty open to doing a lot of interviews with a lot of different people,” he said. “And people want to characterize one or two of them, whether they’re on the right or left, you know, they’re welcome to do it. But I’ve been pretty open to doing interviews and it’s one way to get the information out.”
Asked if he listened to Jones’s show, Paul said that he simply didn’t listen to much news. “When I’m brushing my teeth in the morning I turn on the news channel,” he said, “but I’m busy all day.”
The dishonesty here is really quite stunning, because in fact Rand Paul didn’t just give “one or two” interviews to Alex Jones — he appeared on Jones’s insane radio show for very lengthy interviews over and over for years, and even tweeted links to Jones’s website, Infowars. For example, this tweet circulating an Infowars story about a bogus right wing conspiracy theory:
Mad a/b the weather or bad forecasts? I wouldn’t complain, Nat’l Weather Svc just ordered 46k hollow-point bullets http://t.co/rKWCCPVC
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 14, 2012
Media Matters put together a video, showing Jones and Rand Paul praising each other unreservedly; in one clip, Rand Paul even says to Alex Jones about his election to the Senate, “We can’t do it without you.”
Here’s a video clip from Right Wing Watch showing Alex Jones bragging that he’s known Rand Paul for at least 18 years:
Here’s an interview Rand Paul did with Alex Jones pushing a whole raft of wingnut conspiracy theories, even suggesting President Obama should be impeached.
Seriously, folks, there’s so much of this stuff on YouTube it’s frankly ludicrous that Rand Paul would try to distance himself from Alex Jones at this point. He shouldn’t be allowed to do this, when he actually launched his career on Jones’s show by promoting crazed conspiracy theories.
