Alex Jones pushes tornado truther theory: ‘There’s weather weapon stuff going on'

Conspiracy talk show host Alex Jones, increasingly a favorite of conservative media for his extremely vocal support of gun rights, outed himself Tuesday as a tornado truther by telling a caller on his show, "Of course there's weather weapons stuff going on."

Jones, a longtime proponent of the idea that the U.S. government can manipulate and even produce weather systems like tornadoes and hurricanes, went on to say that if people saw helicopters or small aircraft in the area, then "you better bet your bottom dollar they did this."

"But, who knows if they did?" he asked. "You know, that's the thing. We don't know."

That almost seems like a first for the conspiracy radio host, who has in recent weeks been endlessly promoting theories about how he's certain the Boston Marathon bombing was a "false flag" event set up by the Obama administration. Jones also claims intimate knowledge of the government's alleged plot to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building and carry out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He's also a proponent of the "Manchurian candidate" scenario for the mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut, but virtually all of his "evidence" in these matters is dubious at best and fabricated or misrepresented at worst.

Jones is also credited for pushing a bizarre and thoroughly debunked theory that President Barack Obama trying to buy up all the bullets in the country, both to enforce gun control and to prepare for the murder hundreds of thousands of American citizens amid what he believes is a planned period of civil unrest. Republicans in the House actually held a hearing about this matter, much to the disappointment of their Democratic counterparts. Of course, for years Jones has been telling his listeners that the government, particularly the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has Nazi-style death camps set up all around the country, although no evidence of this has ever surfaced.

Jones is being increasingly treated as a serious voice within the Republican Party, and lawmakers in statehouses across the country and in Congress are beginning to parrot his views, however bizarre they might sound. Even Fox News hosts and Republican freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has appeared on the Alex Jones Show, much like his father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), continues to do.

This audio is from "The Alex Jones Show" on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, as snipped by Media Matters.