Megyn Kelly Loses Hosting Gig at Sandy Hook Group's Event Over Alex Jones Interview

Megyn Kelly’s upcoming interview with InfoWars host Alex Jones has stirred controversy, prompting a Sandy Hook group to drop her from hosting its annual gala.

Kelly was scheduled to host the Promise Champions Gala, an annual event by Sandy Hook Promise, a gun violence prevention organization founded by some family members of victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in 2012. Jones, known for pushing baseless conspiracy theories, has said that the shooting, which killed 26 people, is a “hoax.”

Organizers behind the gala said they couldn’t support Kelly giving airtime to Jones on her new NBC program, Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly.

“Sandy Hook Promise cannot support the decision by Megyn or NBC to give any form of voice or platform to Alex Jones and have asked Megyn Kelly to step down as our Promise Champion Gala host,” Nicole Hockley, Sandy Hook Promise’s co-founder and managing director, said in a statement. “It is our hope that Megyn and NBC reconsider and not broadcast this interview.”

Kelly, who has defended featuring Jones on her show by saying it’s her duty to “shine a light” on newsmakers, said she was “disappointed” by her removal from the event.

“I find Alex Jones’s suggestion that Sandy Hook was “a hoax” as personally revolting as every other rational person does,” Kelly said in a statement she shared on Twitter. “It left me, and many other Americans, asking the very question that prompted this interview: how does Jones, who traffics in these outrageous conspiracy theories, have the respect of the President of the United States and a growing audience of millions?”

 

Write to Mahita Gajanan at mahita.gajanan@time.com.