Alex Jones, owner of the far-right conspiracy site Infowars, seemingly took partial credit for Kanye West wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt last week during a Paris fashion show.
During his Sunday evening Infowars show, Jones discussed West’s controversial shirt. He said that “we woke up Kanye West, folks.”
Jones began his remarks while talking about being mentioned by the hip-hop superstar during his recent interview with Fox News‘ Tucker Carlson. During that sit-down, West discussed a conspiracy theory that “the people at the Gap knew about the school shooting” in Uvalde, Texas.
After the statement, West—who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021—asked, “Have I reached Alex Jones territory yet?”
Jones agreed with West’s conspiracy theory that the Texas shooting may have included some element of media staging, though the controversial host cautiously noted, “We’re not saying kids didn’t die at Uvalde.”
Late last year, Jones lost four defamation lawsuits filed by families of the 2013 Sandy Hook school shooting victims over claims he made about the incident. A jury in Texas ordered Jones to pay $50 million to a Sandy Hook family in August, and he’s currently waiting for a jury in Connecticut to decide on how much money he must pay in damages in another suit.
Elijah Nouvelage/Getty; Ronald Martinez/Getty
Jones also went into detail on Infowars’ Sunday Night Live about why he felt West decided to wear the “White Lives Matter” shirt, which has resulted in much backlash.
“So Kanye West comes out and wears a White Lives Matter shirt. We sold shirts that said All Lives Matter. Said Black Lives Matter. Brown Lives Matter. Yellow Lives Matter. White Lives Matter,” Jones said. “And what he said is ‘I figured this is something God would want.’ Which, absolutely, I’ll wear a shirt that says Black Lives Matter, except I don’t want to be connected to the left, but I’ll still wear it because all lives matter.”
Jones continued, “He did that to bring unity and stop the division and go against the system. He has a lot of courage….The whole point is we woke up Kanye West, folks. That doesn’t mean Alex E. Jones did that. It means all of you did that.”
Jones also offered praise for Candace Owens, the Black conservative pundit who joined West in Paris. Owens wore a similar “White Lives Matter” shirt at the event, and she later posted a photo on social media of her and West together.
Jones noted that he once took issue with Owens for her not defending Infowars “when we got censored” but said she later “apologized to me on-air.”
“Candace, you have gone through a lot, and you’ve grown a lot,” Jones said. “You’re a great leader now. We were so blessed you’re there.”
Newsweek reached out to a representative for West and Infowars for comment.
