Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Photos by Getty/DLive
Popular far-right website The Gateway Pundit, which played a key role in pushing Jan. 6 “false flag” conspiracy theories, has found an unlikely new enemy in Capitol rioter Tim “Baked Alaska” Gionet.
The intra-right-wing drama hit its ugly lows with Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft accusing Gionet of being a “fed,” and the far-right streamer’s allies calling Hoft a pedophile. And the feud recently reached a climax when a lawyer representing The Gateway Pundit allegedly sent an email threatening a lawsuit against a far-right podcaster who welcomed Gionet onto his show to respond to allegations that he’s a federal agent.
In December 2021, Hoft, who has been repeatedly dubbed “the dumbest man on the internet,” published an article claiming Gionet, an ally of white nationalist Nicholas Fuentes’ “groyper army,” is an undercover federal agent who deliberately sought to incite violence at the Capitol to frame then-President Donald Trump and his allies.
“Since January 6th, Baked Alaska’s video footage has been used by Democrats in their impeachment of President Trump,” Hoft wrote. “Tim Gionet is a free man today as Americans he filmed rot in prison without a trial date. Why is that?”
While Gionet was arrested for breaching the Capitol building and faces multiple federal charges, the far-right streamer has fervently denied Hoft’s allegations that he is a “fed.” He appeared on far-right personality Stew Peters’ nightly program late last year in an attempt to squash the allegations.
But the defensive appearance on The Stew Peters Show quickly became an offensive move, with the pair espousing homophobic insults aimed at Hoft. “I mean, obviously, he’s interested in young boys,” Peters said, referring to the right-wing conspiracist being married to a younger man. “He’s married to a very young boy.”
“He is just kicking me when I am down,” Gionet added of Hoft, “and he is on the side of this tyrannical federal government under Joe Biden.” Peters chimed in that Hoft “hates President Trump,” a peculiar statement due to the ex-president previously calling Hoft and his twin brother “great.”
After that segment aired, legal threats began to fly.
“The Gateway Pundit threatening to sue me, for words that they made up,” Peters declared while shaking his head during a Sunday night video he posted to Telegram, a messaging app beloved by the far right.
In a press release sent to The Daily Beast, Peters alleged that a lawyer representing the Gateway Pundit founder sent him an email threatening the podcaster.
“This is not a negotiation. This is not a bluff,” Peters claimed Hoft’s lawyer wrote in the strongly worded email. “You falsely accused Jim of being a pedophile, and you did so with actual malice. In other words, you’re cooked. Retract and apologize, or we’re going to sue you for damages. This is your final good faith warning.”
Neither Hoft nor Jonathan C. Burns, the St. Louis-based lawyer representing him, responded to The Daily Beast’s multiple requests for comment.
Peters denies ever calling Hoft a “pedophile” and seemingly has no intention of backing down from the war of words, even amid legal threats from the influential Trumpworld blogger.
“At no point during the segment in question did I Stew Peters or the Stew Peters show accuse Jim Hoft of being part of a satanic pedophilia cabal,” Peters added in a statement to The Daily Beast. “It is worth mentioning that, to date, Jim Hoft’s attorney is the only person to utter the words ‘satanic pedophile cabal’ in connection with Jim Hoft or The Gateway Pundit.”
While Peters is not folding, thefar-right website Red Voice Media, which hosts content from Peters, issued an apology after the outlet had initially posted the Gionet segment to their website. “That we participated in such an attack, we apologize to Jim Hoft, The Gateway Pundit, and to readers of the Gateway Pundit,” the site stated.
Gionet did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment but he has continued to mock Hoft.
“Still waiting for the Jim Hoft hot tub photos to leak,” he wrote on Telegram.