Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was mocked by a group of students when he visited Yale University to record a video for his Infowars website.
Jones was filming outside the Skull and Bones tomb on High Street—the meeting place for the university's oldest secret society—to spread unsubstantiated claims that the group founded the CIA.
Jones, arguably the most prominent conspiracy theorist in the country, arrived with two bodyguards. None of the three wore face masks during the visit to the Ivy League campus, reported the student newspaper Yale Daily News.
"Skull and Bones is on record helping found the CIA," Jones told Yale Daily News.
"And it really is at the root of some of the corrupt, out-of-control elites in America. The same elites that are trying to avert the American people to class warfare are the ones that opened up China, that are involved in a lot of different types of authoritarianism."
A group of around 20 students stood across the street from Jones while he was filming and heckled him for spreading misinformation, including his false claim that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax and the parents of the killed children were "crisis actors."
"I am not pro big tax, I am pro don't call dead kids crisis actors," one man can be heard saying in a clip that shows Jones arguing with the students.
Jones' Infowars shows have been pulled from platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Spotify and Apple for violating hate-speech guidelines and spreading conspiracy theories.
He is also facing a number of defamation lawsuits linked to his claims about the Sandy Hook massacre, in which 20 children and six adults died.
Students also criticized Jones and his bodyguards for not wearing masks on campus. Yale has asked visitors to stay away from the site in New Haven, Connecticut, in order to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
"It was definitely irresponsible to come on to campus during a pandemic maskless," student Lydia Monk told Yale Daily News.
Another student, Shan Gunasekera, told the newspaper that Jones was free to walk around New Haven.
"I think that he says a lot of problematic stuff. Having said that, I don't think people should have any problem with seeing him on the street," Gunasekera said. "He's there out of his own accord in a public space where anyone is allowed to be, and I really don't see the problem people take in that."
Yale University has been contacted for comment.
