Aaron Rodgers, the New York Jets quarterback and a potential vice presidential pick for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., spoke out Thursday in response to claims that he privately spread lies about the deadly mass shooting in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Rodgers posted on social media that he believes the massacre that killed 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut did indeed take place.
“As I’m on the record saying in the past, what happened in Sandy Hook was an absolute tragedy. I am not and have never been of the opinion that the events did not take place,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“Again, I hope that we learn from this and other tragedies to identify the signs that will allow us to prevent unnecessary loss of life,” he continued. “My thoughts and prayers continue to remain with the families affected along with the entire Sandy Hook community.”
Rodgers’ post comes one day after CNN reported that the athlete spread false conspiracy theories about the massacre, citing an interaction the then-Green Bay Packers quarterback had in 2013 with Pamela Brown, one of the network’s reporters.
In the report, Brown recalled Rodgers “attacking the news media for covering up important stories” after she introduced herself to him as a reporter while covering the Kentucky Derby for CNN. The quarterback then reportedly told her he thought the Sandy Hook massacre was an inside job carried out by the government.
When Brown then asked him to provide evidence the very real shooting was staged, “Rodgers began sharing various theories that have been disproven numerous times,” CNN reported, including the baseless assertion that “men in black in the woods by the school” were actually government operatives.
An anonymous source in the network’s story also recalled Rodgers telling them, “Sandy Hook never happened.”
“All those children never existed. They were all actors,” the athlete reportedly said, adding that he believed the victims’ very real grieving parents were “all making it up.”
The claims Rodgers reportedly made to CNN echo lies spread by InfoWars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones now owes nearly $1.5 billion to the victims’ families after claiming falsely that the shooting was a hoax that was staged by “crisis actors” in a plot to increase gun control. Rodgers appeared to express support for Jones during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast last month.
An attorney who represented Sandy Hook victims’ families against Jones went after “massive weirdo” Rodgers on Wednesday in response to the CNN report.
“I already knew this about you, but what I learned today — that you were one of those freaks telling reporters (and god knows who else) that the Sandy Hook parents were liars and actors — crosses a line you can’t come back from,” Mark Bankston wrote in a lengthy thread on X.
“It means you can’t be trusted with important decisions. It means nobody benefits from listening to you. It means you’re broken in a fundamental way. It means you’re weak, and you’re desperate to believe what a grifter will happily sell you,” he continued. “It means you’re not a leader and will never be one.”
Rodgers’ post on X Thursday does not deny making any specific comments to CNN, but instead simply reaffirms that the shooting did happen.
Rodgers’ post also makes no mention of him potentially serving as Kennedy’s pick for vice president, a possibility the longshot candidate confirmed to The New York Times earlier this week. Both Rodgers and Kennedy have made headlines for spreading anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, and Kennedy said Wednesday that he likes the quarterback because he’s “battle-tested.”
A Kennedy spokesperson told CNN that the presidential candidate believes the Sandy Hook shooting “was a horrific tragedy,” but declined to comment on Rodgers’ reported comments.
This post originally appeared on HuffPost