JD Vance filmed telling far-right group Alex Jones he’s right

Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance once made a bizarre defense of disgraced conspiracy theorist Alex Jones at an event hosted by a dark-money-backed conservative network, according to video obtained by ProPublica.

In 2021, when Vance was just entering the race to replace Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, he spoke at a closed-door event hosted by the secretive Teneo Network, an organization backed by conservative billionaire Leonard Leo.

Leo, co-chair of the Federalist Society and single-handedly responsible for installing the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, pumps hundreds of millions of dollars into the conservative legal movement each year without leaving a trace. With the Teneo network, Leo said he hopes to create “networks of conservatives who can roll back” liberal influence in all spheres of life, including business, media and entertainment, according to a briefing video about the group obtained by ProPublica.

Vance joined the network in 2018, years before he ran for office. At the time, he was a best-selling author who ran a nonprofit and an investment fund.

During his speech at Teneo’s 2021 retreat, Vance attempted to explain his defense of Jones, the right-wing podcaster and supplement promoter who insisted the Sandy Hook child massacre was a hoax. Vance had recently sparked a wave of backlash after tweeting that Jones was more trustworthy than MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

In front of the audience, Vance attempted to defend himself, saying he was just “trolling,” before walking back his denial and insisting that “that doesn’t mean what I said is in any way wrong.”

Vance said it was important to “have a little fun” when you could end up a political prisoner in your own country. “It’s okay to troll when you’re stating and telling basic truths. But, look, I think what I said was correct,” he said.

“If you listen to Rachel Maddow every night, the worldview you have is MAGA grandmothers having Sunday dinners and making apple pies for their families and who are about to start a violent insurrection against this country,” Vance said. “But if you listen to Alex Jones every day, you will believe that a transnational financial elite controls our country, that they hate our society and, by the way, many of them are probably sexual perverts as well.”

“Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but this is actually much truer than Rachel Maddow’s vision of society,” Vance said.

Vance urged conservatives to listen to conspiracy theorists and ignore their baseless and dangerous claims. He used himself as an example. “I believe the devil is real and he’s doing terrible things in our society,” he said. “That’s a crazy conspiracy theory to a lot of highly educated people in this country right now.”

“A lot of the things that are going to be revealed as truth are going to be championed by crazy people in the first place. That doesn’t mean you have to be their best friend,” Vance said, adding that conservatives should champion “unconventional people.”

Vance has a history of ignoring the most heinous remarks made by his friends. In 2022, the future senator gave a friendly 90-minute interview to far-right activist Jack Murphy, who once claimed that “feminists need rape,” according to Mother Jones. And of course, he recently threw his support behind Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, whom Vance once called “America’s Hitler.”