The father of a murdered Sandy Hook victim has branded Elon Musk a “sociopath” after reinstating conspiracy theorist Alex Jones at X.
David Wheeler, whose son Benjamin, 6, lost his life in the 2012 school massacre, said TMZ the billionaire has “no conviction” to welcome Jones despite his past taunting and harassment of families of Sandy Hook victims.
Wheeler previously testified against Jones when the alt-right radio host lost a $965 million defamation lawsuit last year over past claims that the shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six teachers was a “false flag” hoax Has been.
Musk reinstated Jones' account on the platform after a controversial user survey this week, a year after he vowed not to let Jones back due to his own grief over the loss of a child, and he had “no mercy for anyone who would use of the death of children for gain, politics or fame.'
David Wheeler, the father of a first-grader killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, denounced Elon Musk as a “sociopath” with no “convictions” after reinstating conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in X
Benjamin Wheeler, 6, was one of 20 first-graders and six teachers fatally shot during the 2012 school shooting. Alex Jones claimed the attack was a “false flag” hoax and that the grieving families were crisis actors
Elon Musk (left) has come under fire for restoring Alex Jones's (right) X account, despite previously condemning him for using the 'death of children for gain, politics or fame'
Within hours of the December 2012 school shooting, Jones claimed it was a “false flag” attack created by the federal government as an excuse to recall guns.
He would go on to say that there is “an inside job all over the massacre,” and “there is a cover-up, there are actors, they are manipulating, they have been caught lying, and they were already preparing for it.” and rolled out with it.”
Jones was first found liable for damages to the families of Sandy Hook victims in 2022, after Wheeler was joined by grieving parents who detailed the impact of Jones' antics on them.
They recalled receiving death threats and said Jones motivated people to show up at their homes, with some affected parents forced to live in hiding for fear of Jones' followers, and unable to visit their children's graves.
Wheeler testified that when an extremist showed up at his home, they demanded to see Ben and insisted he was alive.
'It was humiliating. I felt like I was being delegitimized in a way,” he said, adding that Jones' followers cited a student film he made in college as evidence that he was a “crisis actor.”
“It's very stressful,” he testified at a hearing. The total damages Jones must pay has risen to almost $1.5 billion, but Jones has since declared bankruptcy.
Wheeler said he stopped using X when Musk bought it last year, but wasn't surprised to see the Tesla chief welcome back the far-right figurehead.
Jones was reinstated following a nearly two million user poll that Musk tweeted on Saturday, with 70 percent of users voting to reinstate Jones' account.
“The people have spoken and they will continue to speak,” Musk said at the end of the poll.
The affected Sandy Hook families said they were forced into hiding out of fear of Jones' followers, who within hours of the shooting claimed it was a hoax concocted by the government as an excuse to amass weapons.
Musk's change in tone from his previous stance that he had “no mercy” for Jones led Wheeler to feel that his family's tormentor was being allowed back onto the public platform “based on user opinion and not based on his own beliefs. convictions.'
Wheeler also called on users to delete their accounts in protest.
Musk's about-face came a year after he publicly declined to welcome Jones back to the platform after purchasing it, citing the death of his own child.
One person posted: “Bring back Alex Jones” – to which Musk replied: “No.”
Musk continued, “My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat. I have no sympathy for anyone who would use the death of children for gain, politics or fame.”
However, he appears to have changed course after Jones appeared in an interview with Tucker Carlson, to which he responded by saying he would “consider” bringing him back.
Musk's decision to reinstate Jones comes after he appeared in a bizarre interview with Tucker Carlson (pictured together on Thursday), in which he claimed President Biden is drugged on amphetamines and wandering around the White House naked and lost in the middle of the night .
'Will consider. Overall, permanent bans should be extremely rare as this platform aims to be the global town square,” he said.
“Even if he says something untrue on this platform, @CommunityNotes will correct him, while that would not be the case elsewhere. Let's take a poll.'
In the same interview, Jones bizarrely claimed that President Joe Biden is often drugged up on amphetamines and wanders around the White House naked and lost in the middle of the night.
Jones told Carson he believed Joe Biden was “completely crazy.”
“He's been wandering around the White House naked for the entire two and a half years. In the middle of the night he doesn't know who he is.
“They have to give him a bunch of drugs, a lot of amphetamines in the morning, and they have to drug him at night.”
'Sometimes he's gone for a while in the morning and comes back in the evening for a ball. Then there really is a problem.'
Carlson nodded and looked serious. 'He's on medication. I have determined that,” the former Fox News host concluded.