A social media row has erupted between Chelsea Clinton and InfoWars founder and right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones after the former first daughter unloaded against him for suggesting Michelle Obama is biologically male.
Ms. Clinton lashed out from her Twitter account Thursday evening after Mr. Jones published an article on his InfoWars website linking to a video he recently uploaded to YouTube titled, “Is This Final Proof Michelle Obama is a Man?”
“.@MichelleObama is everything this site will never be-honorable, brave, beloved, beautiful. Don’t need to watch an awful video to know that,” Ms. Clinton tweeted.
“I didn’t visit the site or watch the video. Think we need to shine a light on the awfulness/expose it - without giving the awfulness clicks,” she added.
While Ms. Clinton didn’t bother to watch the video, others did: Mr. Jones’ “Final Proof” video had garnered over 380,000 views as of Friday afternoon.
“Since the early days of the Obama administration, citizens across the board have studied videos and photos of Michelle Obama, and said, ’That is a man,’” Mr. Jones said in the video.
“Now, I’m not saying that Michelle Obama is a tranny,” he said. “And I don’t hate trannies, I’m a libertarian. But we have famous photos of her where it appears she has a large bulge in her pants.”
The 12-minute video contains no proof of the host’s claim, but repeatedly references an old clip of late comedienne Joan Rivers jokingly calling Mrs. Obama “a transgender” along with recent video of the former first lady “enhanced” by InfoWars.
“It doesn’t look like a cellphone in her pants — in her dress. It looks like a cucumber or something,” Mr. Jones says of the footage.
About 45 million people listen to Mr. Jones internet and radio program each week, according to the host. President Trump notably appeared in 2015, and his former campaign adviser Roger Stone has been a frequent InfoWars guest and co-host.
An unabashed supporter of President Trump, Mr. Jones has routinely targeted his Democratic predecessors and their families and once offered money to anyone who could yell the phrase “Bill Clinton is a rapist” on national television.
Mr. Jones once again evoked Ms. Clinton’s father Friday, tweeting: “There’s nothing honorable & brave about staying silent over Bill’s sexual abuse of women.”
The back-and-forth between the unlikely pair was hardly the first time Ms. Clinton rushed to defend a president’s relative as of late. Earlier this week she took aim at The Daily Caller after it ridiculed an outfit recently donned by Barron Trump, the president’s 11-year-old son.
“It’s high time the media & everyone leave Barron Trump alone & let him have the private childhood he deserves,” Ms. Clinton tweeted at the time.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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