Aaron Rodgers Breaks Silence Following Controversial Sandy Hook Conspiracy Report
Aaron Rodgers, the New York Jets quarterback and a potential vice presidential pick for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., spoke out Thursday in response to claims that he privately spread lies about the deadly mass shooting in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Rodgers posted on social media that he believes the massacre that killed 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut did indeed take place.
âAs Iâm on the record saying in the past, what happened in Sandy Hook was an absolute tragedy. I am not and have never been of the opinion that the events did not take place,â he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
âAgain, I hope that we learn from this and other tragedies to identify the signs that will allow us to prevent unnecessary loss of life,â he continued. âMy thoughts and prayers continue to remain with the families affected along with the entire Sandy Hook community.â
Rodgersâ post comes one day after CNN reported that the athlete spread false conspiracy theories about the massacre, citing an interaction the then-Green Bay Packers quarterback had in 2013 with Pamela Brown, one of the networkâs reporters.
In the report, Brown recalled Rodgers âattacking the news media for covering up important storiesâ after she introduced herself to him as a reporter while covering the Kentucky Derby for CNN. The quarterback then reportedly told her he thought the Sandy Hook massacre was an inside job carried out by the government.
When Brown then asked him to provide evidence the very real shooting was staged, âRodgers began sharing various theories that have been disproven numerous times,â CNN reported, including the baseless assertion that âmen in black in the woods by the schoolâ were actually government operatives.
An anonymous source in the networkâs story also recalled Rodgers telling them, âSandy Hook never happened.â
âAll those children never existed. They were all actors,â the athlete reportedly said, adding that he believed the victimsâ very real grieving parents were âall making it up.â
The claims Rodgers reportedly made to CNN echo lies spread by InfoWars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones now owes nearly $1.5 billion to the victimsâ families after claiming falsely that the shooting was a hoax that was staged by âcrisis actorsâ in a plot to increase gun control. Rodgers appeared to express support for Jones during an appearance on Joe Roganâs podcast last month.
An attorney who represented Sandy Hook victimsâ families against Jones went after âmassive weirdoâ Rodgers on Wednesday in response to the CNN report.
âI already knew this about you, but what I learned today â that you were one of those freaks telling reporters (and god knows who else) that the Sandy Hook parents were liars and actors â crosses a line you canât come back from,â Mark Bankston wrote in a lengthy thread on X.
âIt means you canât be trusted with important decisions. It means nobody benefits from listening to you. It means youâre broken in a fundamental way. It means youâre weak, and youâre desperate to believe what a grifter will happily sell you,â he continued. âIt means youâre not a leader and will never be one.â
Rodgersâ post on X Thursday does not deny making any specific comments to CNN, but instead simply reaffirms that the shooting did happen.
Rodgersâ post also makes no mention of him potentially serving as Kennedyâs pick for vice president, a possibility the longshot candidate confirmed to The New York Times earlier this week. Both Rodgers and Kennedy have made headlines for spreading anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, and Kennedy said Wednesday that he likes the quarterback because heâs âbattle-tested.â
A Kennedy spokesperson told CNN that the presidential candidate believes the Sandy Hook shooting âwas a horrific tragedy,â but declined to comment on Rodgersâ reported comments.This post originally appeared on HuffPost