Seattle’s police department poked fun at conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from its Twitter account Friday after the “InfoWars” host made a literal splash roaming Seattle during a live internet broadcast.
Mr. Jones was broadcasting live on Periscope from downtown Seattle when he engaged with a passerby Friday morning and was subsequently splashed with a thermos full of liquid.
“Hey, @SeattlePD, I’m seeing vids of Alex Jones on Seattle streets yelling at folks. Is this under investigation, are there incident reports?” BuzzFeed reporter Dominic Holden tweeted afterwards.
“We haven’t received any official reports,” the Seattle Police Department responded. “As far as we know that could be an actor playing Alex Jones.”
Law enforcement’s reply was retweeted more than 8,000 times in under 24 hours – a fraction of the over 400,000 views amassed by a video of the incident uploaded to YouTube.
The thermos was full of “hot coffee,” Mr. Jones said afterwards. Some skeptics have suggested it was staged, however, and uncorroborated reports have identified the man who splashed the liquid as a local actor.
SEE ALSO: Alex Jones of InfoWars doused with hot coffee during Seattle broadcast: ‘I’m your momma’
The ribbing from SPD’s official Twitter account came less than a week after Mr. Jones accused “Jewish actors” of posing as Ku Klux Klan members in the wake of last Saturday’s deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“I mean, quite frankly, I’ve been to these events, a lot of the KKK guys with their hats off look like they’re from the cast of Seinfeld,” Mr. Jones said during an episode of his internet and radio program afterwards.
“Literally, they’re just Jewish actors,” he added. “Nothing against Jews in general, but they are leftists Jews that want to create this clash and they go dress up as Nazis.”
Mr. Jones, meanwhile, has previously been accused of being an actor himself — ven by his own attorney. During a child custody dispute earlier this year, Mr. Jones’ lawyer, Randall Wilhite, described his client as a “performance artist” who portrays a “character” on his internet and radio shows.
“I am completely real and everybody knows it,” Mr. Jones responded afterwards.
“We’re the most bona fide, hardcore, real McCoy thing there is, and everybody knows it and we’re delivering the goods,” Mr. Jones added. “But they sit there and play games. I’m the opposite of some scripted person.”
Mr. Jones’ programs boast a combined weekly audience of about 45 million, by his own accounting. President Trump notably appeared during a 2015 broadcast, and Mr. Trump’s former campaign advisor, Roger Stone, is reportedly in the works to host his own show under Mr. Jones “InfoWars” branding.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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