J.D. Vance said he trusts Alex Jones more than Rachel Maddow

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Donald Trump’s running mate, believes that far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones “is a better source of information” than lesbian MSNBC anchorwoman Rachel Maddow. Jones has used his massive media platform to spread falsehoods to over 3 million listeners, including lies that resulted in real-world violence. His lies about the Sandy Hook school shooting resulted in a $1.5 billion judgement against him for defamation in 2022.

Vance made the aforementioned comment in 2021 and it was recently resurfaced by the watchdog organization Media Matters. Vance defended his comment later that year while speaking to the Teneo Network. The network — which is not affiliated with Teneo, the global advisory and consulting firm — is a young conservatives’ organization that is on the Heritage Foundation’s advisory board for Project 2025, a plan to roll back LGBTQ+ and other civil rights and to dismantle democratic institutions during a second Trump presidency.

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“I got myself into a little hot water last week because I made, what seemed to me, a plainly obvious observation: that Alex Jones is a better source of information than Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC gal,” Vance said. “Now, some people said, ‘Well, J.D., you’re just trolling.’ Well, yeah, of course, I was just trolling. But that doesn’t mean what I said is in any way untrue, right?”

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He then alleged that Jones’s claims that “a transnational financial elite controls things in our country that they hate our society and… a lot of them are probably sex perverts” is “actually a hell of a lot more true than” Maddow’s “basic worldview” that Trump-supporting extremists “are about to start a violent insurrection against this country,” much like they tried on January 6, 2021.

Vance didn’t mention that Jones’ views about “sex perverts” — a major part of the so-called #Pizzagate conspiracy theory that Jones was a significant promoter of — led to a real-world shooting at a gay-owned pizzeria in the nation’s capital. Jones’ views were also a precursor to the QAnon conspiracy movement, which led to the now-common right-wing views that Democrats and cultural “elites” are using LGBTQ+ “indoctrination” to “groom” children for sexual abuse.

While admitting that Jones “believes crazy things,” Vance normalized Jones’ views by saying, “I bet, if you’re being honest with yourself, every single person in this room believes this, at least something that’s a little crazy.” He then said that he himself believes that “the devil is real and he works terrible things in our society.”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he continued, “the most important truths often come from people who are crazy 60% of the time, but they’re right 40% of the time.” He then cited transphobic billionaire Elon Musk (who also promoted #Pizzagate), gay conservative Peter Thiel (who financed a right-wing dating app that didn’t allow gay people), and rabidly anti-LGBTQ+ failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy as examples of other so-called “truth tellers.”

“I’m regularly asked by donors in Ohio whether I’d be willing to denounce MTG, Marjorie, Taylor Greene,” he added. “I’d say, ‘Why? Why do you want me to denounce this person?’ Well, she believes these crazy things. Who cares? Believing crazy things is not the mark of whether somebody should be rejected. Believing important truths should be the mark of whether we accept somebody, and if they believe some crazy things on the side, that’s fine. We need to be okay with nonconventional people.”

Greene has promoted posts on social media that claimed that an airplane never hit the Pentagon during the September 11, 2001 attacks; that all school shootings are fake; that California wildfires were started by a Jewish-owned space laser; and that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once sliced off a child’s face and drank her blood.

Jones has also long used InfoWars to spew hatred against the LGBTQ+ community.

On his show, he has spoken about wanting to “execute” lesbian MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow and he called a U.S. congressman a “cocksucker” and a “fairy.” He also said that the fight for transgender rights is just a Deep State plot to give civil rights to cyborgs and humanoids — and to force people to allow their neighbors to have sex with their cars. (Despite that, there’s evidence that Jones enjoys watching transgender adult videos on his phone.)

Jones’s completely untrue conspiracy theories have led to violent threats against innocent people.

In mid-November, a Connecticut court found Jones and his cohorts liable for defamation against parents whose children died in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Jones claimed that the shooting was a “false flag” hoax organized by the government to justify taking people’s guns. He said the 20 children who were murdered in the shooting and their parents who spoke out afterward were all fake “crisis actors.” As a result, the parents faced constant harassment and death threats from Jones’ followers. A court ordered Jones to pay $1.5 billion in defamation penalties to the parents. 

Vance revealed his ignorance on transgender identity & extremism

Elsewhere in his speech, Vance said that people, including doctors, are “terrified to actually point out the obvious … that there are real, biological, cultural, religious, spiritual distinctions between men and women.” He added, “I think that’s what the whole transgender thing is about — fundamentally denying basic reality.”

Vance has referred to gender identity as a “harmful ideology” and “unscientific and untrue,” even though all major American medical and psychological associations have affirmed trans identities as a valid and normal part of human diversity.

He has introduced legislation to ban gender-affirming care for individuals under 18 and make providing such care a federal felony. He has also proposed legislation to prohibit the use of “X” gender markers on passports for nonbinary individuals.

In his speech, Vance also mocked the chiefs of the U.S. military branches for focusing on rooting out “white rage” among its ranks in 2021 despite its preparations for a withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan.

What he didn’t mention was that the military’s focus on white supremacy in 2021 was part of a larger push within the Department of Defense to fight extremism in the military ranks. The military began looking more closely at the issue after the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Nearly 20% of 140 arrested insurrectionists were either military veterans or retirees, Newsweek reported.

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