Controversy over NBC host Megyn Kelly’s interview with Alex Jones is intensifying before its Sunday night broadcast, with the far-right conspiracy theorist – and supporter of Donald Trump – claiming to have secretly recorded his entire interaction with the former Fox News host and threatening to “leak” the results.

By Saturday evening, no such full release had been made. But on Friday, Jones, an anti-Muslim crusader who hosts a rightwing radio show and runs the Infowars website, claimed to have “scooped” the former Fox News host by releasing excerpts from a conversation about the possibility of staging an interview. Jones has also asked NBC to pull the Kelly piece because he claims he will be misrepresented.

Accusing Kelly of luring him with promises of a soft-ball profile, Jones aired clips of recordings, not challenged by NBC, in which Kelly was heard to say she was fascinated by him and wanted to show his “different sides”.

“I promise you that when it [the show] is over you will be fine with it,” Kelly said, adding that she will put some of Jones’s controversial remarks to him and allow him to respond.

“This is not going to be a contentious, gotcha exchange,” she promised.

Public criticism of the NBC interview has been driven by Jones’s past statements about the Sandy Hook school shooting of December 2012. Protest has spread on social media, network sponsors have applied pressure and bereaved families have voiced their concerns. Jones once posited that the whole shooting may have been staged by actors. He now says he believes the shooting happened. On Friday, he complained that Kelly has not acknowledged this while promoting the interview.

This is a celebrity piece. This is a sensational piece. I don’t think it’s helpful for anyone to be involved in this Nelba Marquez-Greene, Sandy Hook parent

Nelba Márquez-Greene, whose six-year-old daughter Ana Grace was killed in the shooting, told National Public Radio: “This is a celebrity piece. This is a sensational piece. I don’t think it’s helpful for anyone to be involved in this … this is just so not OK.”



Márquez-Greene, who said it would be egregious for NBC to broadcast Kelly’s interview with Jones on Father’s Day, also wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post in which she discussed the appalling harassment, including death threats, that Sandy Hook families suffer from conspiracy theorists.

NBC has remained unmoved, but the interview will not air on one affiliate station. WVIT is based in West Hartford, Connecticut and covers Sandy Hook and Newtown, home to the 20 children and six adults who died.

‘Megyn Kelly is a puppet’

Alex Jones, seen at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas. Photograph: Tamir Kalifa/AP

Both Kelly and Jones’s profiles have been sharply heightened by their relations with Donald Trump. During the 2016 presidential election, Kelly was assailed by the candidate in a sexist manner, for asking tough questions in a debate. A subsequent one-on-one interview itself became the focus of media attention.

The president is more of a fan of Jones, having appeared on his radio show and reportedly having thanked him after the election for his support – despite the fact that Jones promulgates racism, offensive theories and wildly untrue stories.

In his criticism of Kelly on Friday, Jones accused her of being a tool of the liberal media establishment – a tactic often used by the president.

“Megyn Kelly is a puppet,” he said in an online broadcast in which he also compared the newscaster to the gorgon Medusa. “She is a beautiful woman that the corporate structure uses to push its agenda. We have the whole interview documented so that we can post mortem and see where she edited and where she manipulated.”

His release of tape of pre-interview conversation with Kelly, he said, was an example of “groundbreaking journalism [that] shows the anatomy of an NBC-CIA-globalist-George Soros-financed hit job”.

Megyn Kelly is a puppet. She is a beautiful woman that the corporate structure uses to push its agenda Alex Jones

He then promoted a line of organic toiletries, sales of which help fund his operations.

NBC, meanwhile, released a promotional clip. It showed Kelly – who earlier this month conducted an interview with Russian president Vladimir Putin – asking Jones about his theories regarding the terror attacks of 11 September 2001.



“9/11 was an inside job,” Jones said. “That means criminal elements in our own government, working with Saudi Arabia and others, wanted to frame Iraq for it. Just a fact.”

In a statement sent to the Guardian on Saturday, an NBC spokesperson said: “Despite Alex Jones’ efforts to distract from and ultimately prevent the airing of our report, we remain committed to giving viewers context and insight into a controversial and polarizing figure, how he relates to the president of the United States and influences others, and to getting this serious story right.

“Tune in Sunday.”