J.D. Vance, winner of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice-style Veepstakes contest, told a group of young conservatives that they should listen to “nonconventional” people like conspiracist Alex Jones in a candid closed-door speech in 2021. Vance took shots at MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, claiming that watching the journalist will make viewers believe that MAGA grandmas who bake apple pies “are about to start a violent insurrection” against America. “But if you listen to Alex Jones every day, you would believe that a transnational financial elite controls things in our country,” Vance pivoted to say. “That they hate our society, and, oh, by the way, a lot of them are probably sex perverts too.” Jones, the owner of the far-right Infowars site, has declared multiple bankruptcies over the years to avoid paying $1.1 billion in damages owed to the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre after a court found him guilty of defamation. Vance reportedly went on to tell the attendees that Jones’ view of society is much more accurate than Maddow’s, revealing just how deep his conservatism runs when in private. Vance also added that the conspiracy he most believes in is that “the devil is real” and is pulling the strings behind all the “terrible things” in our society. “That’s a crazy conspiracy theory to a lot of very well-educated people in this country right now,” he went on to say.