Alex Jones

NEW YORK — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones hemmed and hawed when pressed repeatedly by Megyn Kelly to admit he was wrong to call the massacre at Newtown, Conn., a hoax.

Jones never gave a direct answer in a segment on NBC’s “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly.” Kelly has been criticized for giving a platform to Jones, who has called the Sept. 11 attacks an inside job and promoted a story that a pizza place in Washington, D.C., was the site of a child sex ring.

She has defended her decision by noting that his influence has grown with the rise of President Donald Trump, who has praised Jones and appeared on his radio program.

“Here’s the thing, Alex Jones isn’t going away,” she said Sunday night.

The “Infowars” host said at one point that he was playing “devil’s advocate” in denying the 2012 mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. But he added that he remained skeptical after he “watched the footage” of children leaving the building.

“Some of it looks like it’s real but then what do you do when they’ve got the kids going in circles in and out of the building with their hands up. I’ve watched the footage,” he said. “That looks like a drill.”

The segment with Jones combined Kelly’s interview with background on his history of false remarks, his relationship with Trump and comments from Newtown parent Neil Heslin, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was killed in the shooting. When Kelly asked Heslin whether he had anything to say to Jones for Father’s Day, he responded, “I think he’s blessed to have his children to spend the day with, to speak to. I don’t have that.”

Last week, Jones leaked an audio recording of what he said was a phone conversation with Kelly, heard promising she would not portray him as “some kind of boogeyman.”

Connecticut’s NBC affiliate said Friday it wouldn’t air the report. In an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press, NBC Connecticut staff members were told station executives made the decision after listening to concerns from employees, Sandy Hook families and viewers and considering “the deep emotions from the wounds of that day that have yet to heal.”