After coming under fire for hosting virulent antisemite E. Michael Jones, who claimed “the Jews took over the Blacks early on” and are “running the Biden administration,” TheBlaze’s Jason Whitlock has looked to distance himself from the scandal. Not only has the right-wing sports pundit addressed the controversy on his podcast, but he’s deleted tweets promoting his interview with Jones and taken the entire episode down from YouTube. Far-right commentators, meanwhile, have since mocked Whitlock and suggested that TheBlaze founder Glenn Beck forced the former ESPN personality to publicly apologize.
During a lengthy interview that aired on January 18, Whitlock described Jones as “a celebrated author, a public intellectual, [and] an ardent supporter of the Catholic faith.” Praising Jones’ latest book and noting that they both believe that “sexual lust…has been turned into a tool to control all of us,” Whitlock boasted that the author was “under attack by the Anti-Defamation League” and had been “canceled because of his writings.” Considering the ADL describes Jones as “an anti-Semitic Catholic writer who promotes the view that Jews are dedicated to propagating and perpetrating attacks on the Catholic Church and moral standards, social stability, and political order throughout the world,” it shouldn’t have been too surprising that Jones would eventually go on an anti-Jewish rant during the interview. Despite Jones’ stunningly bigoted commentary, which appeared to leave Whitlock in shock at times, TheBlaze host repeatedly nodded along with Jones and lauded him for his “fearless” views.
After Jones said Jews are “undermining the moral fabric of the American people,” Whitlock appeared to back his guest’s remarks. “I get it, and I can’t say that I disagree,” he replied. Jones would go on to say that hundreds of Jews were running the government before making even more noxious claims about Jewish people “controlling” the Black community. At the end of the interview, which included on-screen “TRUTH BOMB” graphics, Whitlock gave Jones his seal of approval. “Mr. Jones, you are fearless,” Whitlock declared, adding that any critics should know that “the man is speaking facts, and I know the intent of what he just said, and I got no problem with it.” Whitlock then promoted Jones’ comments about Jews with a series of tweets but took most of the posts down within a day amid growing backlash.
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On his follow-up broadcast, Whitlock discussed the controversy with two of his show’s regular contributors, insisting that he wasn’t fully aware of Jones’ notoriety until after the interview. “I should have been better prepared. That's where I blamed myself,” he said. “After the interview, I did start like looking around and seeing like, oh, man, this guy’s got some real controversy to him. I don't regret having him on. I regret not being as prepared as I should have been.” Calling Jones’ antisemitic ramblings a “distraction,” Whitlock—who had previously defended Ye’s hateful anti-Jewish tirades—said he “fed into it by putting out a clip that I regret putting out” and that was why he deleted the tweets. Additionally, he stated that while the interview would remain up on TheBlaze’s site and conservative-friendly video platform Rumble, he “may decide to take it down off YouTube just because I know how YouTube works.” This past Wednesday, the video had indeed been voluntarily pulled down from YouTube but remained up on the other platforms.
Perhaps because Whitlock was just the latest prominent conservative pundit to go “mask-off” and lean into explicitly antisemitic commentary, far-right extremists were less than happy with his mild denouncement of Jones. Elijah Schaffer, who frequently traffics in antisemitic tropes and was fired from TheBlaze in 2022 over sexual misconduct allegations, described Jones as a “very astute” author while mocking Whitlock alongside ex-Blaze host Jon Miller. Appearing on Shaffer’s podcast, Miller repeatedly compared Whitlock, who is Black, to a slave while speculating that Beck had pressured Whitlock to apologize and delete his social media posts and YouTube video.
“I know if I had tweeted that at TheBlaze at the time, if you had said that, there would have been a lot of problems,” Miller exclaimed. “That’s all I’ll say about that. Then lo and behold, maybe two or three days later, groveling apology from this guy. Just, ‘I’m sorry, I had no idea who he was! I’m so sorry!’” Ex-NBA player turned right-wing conspiracy theorist Royce White, meanwhile, also suggested TheBlaze chief was behind Whitlock’s 180-degree turnaround, tweeting that Whitlock “apologizing for the E. Michael Jones thing is so typical” and “has Glenn Beck written all over it.”
When reached for comment, Whitlock denied that Beck or anyone else pressured him to remove the tweets or YouTube clip. “I took the interview off YouTube because I wanted to avoid a YouTube strike,” he said. “The interview is available on Rumble, BlazeTV, Apple, Spotify, etc. I removed the tweet because it overshadowed the purpose of the interview, a discussion about how sexual liberation is used for political control. I like Glenn Beck. Consider him a friend. He's very bright. He has nothing to do with my show. I realize most of the legacy media is most comfortable when Black intellectuals have handlers. Sorry for your discomfort.” Reps for Beck and TheBlaze did not respond to requests for comment.
