WASHINGTON — Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ambushed Sen. Marco Rubio as he was being interviewed by reporters outside a Capitol Hill hearing room Wednesday, heckling the Florida Republican until Rubio warned Jones that if he refused to back off, “I’ll take care of you myself.”
The confrontation happened outside a hearing at which Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey testified on their companies’ efforts to combat the use of fake social media accounts by Russia and other foreign powers to interfere in U.S. elections.
Jones has accused the tech giants of censoring conservative voices after they suspended accounts for his conspiracy theory website Infowars last month. He made an unexpected appearance in the front row of the audience at Wednesday’s hearing and was also seen milling about the hallways outside the room, yelling about anti-conservative bias and declaring that he had come to “face my accusers.”
Will Sommer, a tech reporter for the Daily Beast, witnessed the four-minute episode involving Jones and Rubio and posted video of it on Twitter on Wednesday morning.
Here's video of the Alex Jones – Rubio spat https://t.co/lGDaHAcZUc
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) September 5, 2018
In the video, Jones is seen talking over Rubio and the reporters trying to interview him in a hallway outside the hearing room, taunting the senator and trying to elicit an answer from him on the tech companies’ treatment of him.
“Is that a heckler at a press gaggle?” Rubio says at one point. “I just don’t know who you are, man. I don’t really read your website.”
Soon after, Jones appears to touch Rubio’s shoulder as he’s speaking. Rubio turns to face Jones directly.
“Hey, don’t touch me again, man,” Rubio says. “I’m asking you not to touch me.”
Jones contends that he had just patted Rubio “nicely” and says, “Oh, you want me to get arrested.”
“You’re not going to get arrested,” Rubio replies. “I’ll take care of you myself.”
Jones continues to mock Rubio, calling him a “frat boy” at one point and declaring at another, “You are literally like a little gangster thug.”
As the interview wraps up, Rubio tells the assembled throng of reporters, “You guys can talk to this clown.”
Jones continues to hurl insults as Rubio walks down the hall, calling out behind him, “Go back to your bathhouse.”
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