V.P. Nominee J.D. Vance Praised Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones In A Speech

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), the GOP vice presidential pick, has been caught on video offering praise for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones by labeling him as an honest speaker.

Back in September 2021, Vance made this claim during a closed-door event hosted by the Teneo Network, an organization supported by conservative billionaire Leonard Leo and a partner of Project 2025.

Leo invests hundreds of millions of dollars into the conservative legal movement each year.

With the Teneo Network, he stated that he wanted to create “networks of conservatives that can roll back” liberal influence in all aspects of life, such as business, media, and entertainment, according to an informational video about the group obtained by ProPublica.

Vance has been a member of the network since 2018.

“I got myself into a little hot water last week because I made what seemed to me a plainly obvious observation that Alex Jones, the Infowars guy, is a better source of information than Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC gal,” he stated during the event in 2021.

“Now, some people said, ‘Well, JD, you’re just trolling,'” he added. “Well, yeah, of course, I was just trolling. But that doesn’t mean what I said is in any way untrue.”

“Look, I think there’s a not terrible chance that one of you is going to be sharing cellblock 12A in Premier [Mike] Harris‘ prison detention camp in a few years,” the Ohio GOP senator stated. “If we’re going to all end up in that place, we might as well have a little fun while we get there.”

“It’s okay to troll when you when you make and speak fundamental truths,’ Vance mentioned. “But look, I do think that – I do think what I said was correct. Yeah, I was trolling; I was also speaking a truth.”

“Because look, if you listen to Rachel Maddow every night, the basic worldview that you have, is that MAGA grandmas who have family dinners on Sunday and bake apple pies for their family are about to start a violent insurrection against this country,” he claimed. “But if you listen to Alex Jones every day, you would believe that a transnational financial elite controls things in our country, that they hate our society, and oh, by the way, a lot of them are probably sex perverts too. Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, that’s actually a hell of a lot more true than Rachel Maddow’s view of society.”

“But then the second criticism that I get is, ‘Well, he’s a crazy conspiracist, right? He doesn’t believe that 9/11 actually happened or he believed 9/11 was an inside job,'” Vance then noted. “And look, I understand this desire to not be called terrible names. It’s like, yeah, okay, this person believes crazy things.”

“But I bet if you’re being honest with yourself, every single person in this room believes at least something that’s a little crazy, right,” he asked. “I believe the devil is real and that he works terrible things in our society. That’s a crazy conspiracy theory to a lot of very well-educated people in this country right now. Even though, of course, they participate in it without knowing about it. But that’s a separate, a separate matter.”

“But ladies and gentlemen, the most important truths often come from people who are crazy 60% of the time, but they’re right 40% of the time,” the senator asserted.

On July 15, during the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, former President Donald Trump announced Vance as his running mate, in the hope that the young senator would bring fresh energy to the Republican ticket.

Vance is known for his “America First” positions, as well as his skepticism toward U.S. involvement in global affairs like the war in Ukraine and for opposing bipartisan government funding deals.