Leaked texts between Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones reveal a cozy relationship between the notorious conspiracy theorist and the top-rated host on cable news.
In Jan. 2020, Jones shared an Infowars story claiming Democrats have a plan to confiscate guns in America. “Listen in their own words as the leftists vow to make you a disarmed slave,” the piece said. “It is their wet dream that they make you a victim.”
“I swear tis shit [sic] makes me want to buy more ammo,” Carlson replied.
The texts were obtained by HuffPost reporter Sebastian Murdoch via Texas lawyer Mark Bankston, who was mistakenly sent an entire digital copy of Jones’ phone by the Infowars chief’s own lawyers (whoops) during the Sandy Hook defamation trial. (In that trial and one other, Jones was found to have defamed the Sandy Hook families when he repeatedly claimed their children had faked the massacre, and was ordered to pay more than $1.4 billion.)
The conversations show a drastic and confounding evolution in both of their views on the Covid pandemic during its early months. At first, as Covid tore through China and began taking its deadly toll on the United States, Carlson took the virus seriously. He famously traveled to Mar-a-Lago to urge then-President Donald Trump to take it seriously. On air, he warned that people will get sick and die from the virus.
Infowars took the same stance, commending Carlson in an article for “saving America” with his appeal to the president.
Texts from the time reflect their alarm. Jones texted Carlson a link to the Infowars article.
“I tried man,” Carlson replied.
In the months that followed, both Carlson and Jones shifted their positions on the pandemic. The Infowars story commending Carlson for taking it seriously was deleted from the site, according to HuffPost, and Alex Jones began selling fake cures for the virus.
Carlson descended further into conspiracy theories and outright falsehoods about the virus on his prime-time Fox News show. When safe and effective vaccines were introduced and started to help the world get the virus under control, Carlson bizarrely cast them as ineffective and even deadly.
Their texts reflected that change.
Per HuffPost:
Early on the morning of April 27, Jones texted Carlson a link to an Infowars article that complained about a pharmaceutical company that was briefly suspended from Twitter after it posted a video that depicted an experimental ultraviolet technology designed to kill the coronavirus. YouTube also removed the video from its website for promoting unsubstantiated claims, but not before the video racked up more than 17 million views.
The idea of using UV light to kill the virus was briefly touted after Trump talked about shining a “very powerful light” inside the body to kill the virus.
“The whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute, that’s ― that’s pretty powerful,” Trump said during a White House press conference at the time.
Carlson replied to Jones’ text within the hour.
“I saw this. They’re clamping down. We’ll be China soon,” Carlson warned.
“Trump could vindicate himself by covering it,” Jones replied. “That’s why they are taking it down as you know.”
“I totally agree,” Carlson texted. “If they can do this during a pandemic, they’ll definitely do it during a presidential election.”
The texts involve other instances of Carlson and Jones exchanging dubious Covid claims — some of which ended up on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Elsewhere, the texts reveal a cozy relationship between Carlson and Jones, who appear to share a similar penchant for paranoia.
In one exchange from March 2020, Carlson shared a tweet from former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson celebrating Twitter cracking down on false information regarding Covid shared by Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
“If Democrats win in November, they’re going to crush Fox News just as they’ve crushed the NRA,” Carlson told Jones. “And we’re going to deeply regret letting it happen. Everyone who thought it was fine that they de-platformed Alex Jones will look like a fucking moron.”
Joe Biden did end up winning the 2020 election. Two years into his first term in office, Fox News remains un-crushed.
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