Megyn Kelly dropped as host of Sandy Hook gala due to Alex Jones interview
Megyn Kelly is stepping down from a hosting job — though not her new gig at NBC.
Sandy Hook Promise, a gun violence prevention nonprofit created after the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, announced in a statement Monday night that they had asked Kelly to step down as host of their annual Promise Champion Gala in light of Kelly’s upcoming interview with radio host and InfoWars founder Alex Jones. Jones has said he believes that the shooting was a government hoax that used child actors.
“Sandy Hook Promise, a leading gun violence prevention organization, and NBC host Megyn Kelly have agreed that Kelly will no longer host the organization’s annual Promise Champions Gala on Wednesday, June 14th, in Washington DC,” the statement reads. “This decision was spurred by NBC’s planned broadcast of Kelly’s interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who believes the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT, was a hoax.”
Kelly’s interview with Jones is scheduled to air on Sunday’s episode of Kelly’s new show, Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly. After Kelly posted a teaser for the interview on Twitter this past Sunday night, Nelba Márquez-Greene, whose daughter Ana was killed in the shooting, posted a series of tweets criticizing the host for giving Jones a platform.
“In @megynkelly ‘s America, cruelty gets u on national TV on Father’s Day,” Márquez-Greene wrote in one tweet. “#SandyHook grieving dads will go to the cemetery. #thisisnotnormal”
On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that banking company J.P. Morgan & Chase asked for all of its TV and digital ads be removed from promotions for Sunday’s episode due to the Jones interview.
Sandy Hook Promise cofounder and managing director Nicole Hockley said in the nonprofit’s statement that the organization hopes NBC will not broadcast the interview.
“Sandy Hook Promise cannot support the decision by Megyn or NBC to give any form of voice or platform to Alex Jones and have asked Megyn Kelly to step down as our Promise Champion Gala host,” Hockley said in the statement. “It is our hope that Megyn and NBC reconsider and not broadcast this interview.”
Jones himself released a video Monday night in which he said he doesn’t want the interview to air, claiming Kelly misrepresented his views and took his words out of context.
“I agree with the families of the victims of Sandy Hook,” Jones said in the video. “The Alex Jones profile interview with Megyn Kelly does not need to air, it needs to be shelved.”
