LA mayor candidate Spencer Pratt distances himself from past 9/11 conspiracy comments, says he was ‘young and naive’

By Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck, CNN

(CNN) — Years before Spencer Pratt emerged as a high-profile insurgent candidate in the Los Angeles mayor’s race, the former reality TV star immersed himself in the world of noted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones — telling Jones’ audience in 2009 that the September 11 attacks were “100%” an inside job and urged his fans on social media to watch a widely debunked film that pushed the same claim.

In a series of July 2009 posts on X, then known as Twitter, Pratt praised “Loose Change” — a debunked conspiracy film central to the 9/11 Truth movement — writing that “anyone who can watch that and not see the truth is blind!” Days later, Pratt wrote that if he were ever elected president, he would reveal “the facts of 9/11 that were not presented to the mainstream media.”

The posts came around the time of an appearance that Pratt and his wife Heidi Montag made on Jones’ radio show. Pratt promoted the interview on his official MySpace at the time.

During the interview, Jones asked Pratt directly whether he believed 9/11 was an inside job.

“Not from my research, but from your research, it 100% is,” Pratt responded, before referencing conspiracy theories surrounding the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7.

“I can’t even believe that it took me seeing your film to know about building seven,” added Pratt.

The interview came after Pratt and Montag credited Jones for their “awakening” by watching Jones’ documentaries. Throughout the interview, the pair discussed the “New World Order,” fluoride conspiracies, and microchips as the biblical “Mark of the Beast.”

In an interview Thursday with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Pratt said his views had changed over the past two decades, particularly after experiencing losing his home in the Palisades fire.

“It’s actually worse than a conspiracy,” Pratt said. “It’s that we have people in charge that make mistakes that get people killed.”

Pratt told Tapper he was “young and naive” and argued that major tragedies are often the result of government failures rather than coordinated plots.

“I believe a lot of people failed to allow the al Qaeda terrorists to get in,” Pratt said. “So I think the negligence in government allowed — not on purpose, but just failures.”

Asked if he regretted his comments, Pratt said he had “20 years of regret” but said those comments did not reflect who he is today.

“The person I am now is very different than the person before January 7th,” he said, invoking the date of the Palisades fire.

Resurfaced posts and comments

At one point in his 2009 comments to Jones, Pratt said it was “mind boggling” that people still believed in global warming, while Montag warned that she would rather die than accept a government microchip implant. Government microchip implants do not exist.

The resurfaced posts and comments, some of which were first reported by MSNOW, come as Pratt mounts an unconventional but increasingly prominent campaign for Los Angeles mayor. His recent rise has been fueled in part by frustration over the city’s response to the Palisades wildfire that destroyed the home Pratt shared with Montag in January 2025.

Pratt, a registered Republican, has downplayed his party affiliation in the race despite courting support from right-wing media.

The California primary is on Tuesday, June 2. It is a nonpartisan jungle primary in which the top two performing candidates move on to the general election this November.

It’s not the only time Pratt made controversial comments about 9/11. After his reality TV show, “The Hills,” was cancelled in 2010, he later called it “our 9/11.” He later apologized for the “thoughtless analogy.”

Pratt and Montag appeared on Jones’ show again in July 2017 in an in-person interview while the two happened to be on vacation in Hawaii at the same time as Jones. They talked about stepping back from their reality star careers to focus on their family.

At the end of the interview, Jones referenced advice he gave the couple back in 2009, saying that an unknown “they” could target the couple just for appearing on his show.

“You definitely warned us and I was like, ‘We’re fine, we’re fine.’ No. What’s crazy, if we want to go like dark, dark, you know, multiple people ‘died’ that were in our entourage,” said Pratt, using finger air quotes around “died.”

“Our lawyer was allegedly – He’s no longer alive, right, when this was all happening,” he said.

“There’s a lot of death in TV,” Jones interjected.

“Our lawyer’s not – Heidi’s plastic surgeon no longer alive,” said Pratt. “So I mean it was so – the stakes got so beyond real when people. You know, when you feel that you know we can…”

Montag finished, “We actually, we left to Costa Rica. We were gonna move there. And we left and we took all our stuff because we were concerned.”

“We were scared that we were gonna get, like, off Michael Jackson-style. Like, ‘Oh they’re crazy,’” said Pratt.

Jones replied, “Oh, the star killer stuff’s real.”

Pratt later tweeted a video he took during his on-camera interview with Jones.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.