Megyn Kelly is out as the Sandy Hook gala emcee for Wednesday because of her interview with Alex Jones, host of the YouTube show "Info Wars," the group Sandy Hook Promise announced Monday.
Kelly interviewed Jones about the shooting and his views during an interview for "Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly" to air June 18, according to The Washington Post. His conspiracy theories have included that the 2012 shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, was a government hoax.
"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 D.C.," the organization's statement said.
"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 … was a hoax."
Nicole Hockley, co-founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise, urged NBC and Kelly to not air the interview.
"Sandy Hook Promise cannot support the decision by Megyn or NBC to give any form of voice or platform to Alex Jones," Hockley said in the statement.
Sandy Hook Promise found an unlikely ally against the interview in Jones himself, who now says Kelly duped him and misrepresented his position on the Sandy Hook tragedy, according to The Washington Post.
"Megyn Kelly lied to me several weeks before she came here, and she said the interview was not going to be about Sandy Hook and the mass shooting there," Jones said in a video, noted the Post.
"My listeners questioned it (Sandy Hook shootings). … I played devil's advocate by saying maybe none of it happened and it was all fake. The other side of me believes those parents I've seen on TV, and real mass shootings happen, so it probably did happen," he continued.
Kelly defended her interview on Twitter, pointing out that President Donald Trump has appeared on his show and complimented the radio host, and he has been given White House press credentials, the Post noted.