GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has been heavily criticized for suggesting that US federal agents may have been on the planes involved in the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Ramaswamy, the 38-year-old millennial newcomer who is seeking high office in 2024, suddenly turned to the controversial conversation after discussing the January 6 uprising.
He said he questioned the U.S. government’s reporting on the number of federal agents involved in the attack that of the Atlantic Ocean John Hendrickson: “I think it’s legitimate to say how many police, how many federal agents were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers.
“Maybe the answer is zero. As far as I know it’s probably zero, right? I have no reason to believe it was anything other than zero.
Vivek Ramaswamy (pictured), the 38-year-old millennial Republican upstart, suddenly turned to the controversial conversation after discussing the January 6 uprising
Ramaswamy made the controversial comments in an interview with Atlantic’s John Hendrickson (pictured)
“But when we make a comprehensive assessment of what happened on September 11, we have a committee for September 11. That should definitely be an answer that the public knows the answer to.”
He seemed to suggest that the US government had not been completely honest about the events of September 11.
“I mean, I would accept the truth about 9/11. I have no doubts about what we do. This is not something I put anything on. But I want the truth about 9/11.”
He said in the interview that he “only brought up the September 11 terrorist attacks” because it was used as the basis for the January 6 commission.
“Well, if we do a January 6 committee, those definitely have to be questions that we need to get to the bottom of.
“What percent of the armed people were federal law enforcement officers? I think it was probably high,” Ramaswarmy said.
In 2021, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unsuccessfully attempted to create a “9/11-style commission” that would investigate how and why the January 6 riot at the Capitol in Washington DC took place.
Shortly after the interview was published, he tried to backtrack on his comments.
He told CNN he was misquoted by the Atlantic, but seemingly doubled down on the conspiracy talk: “The truth is that the government has been telling lies about September 11, but they are not the lies that someone put in my mouth.
“It’s the one I worded, which was that Saudi Arabia was definitely their intelligence involved in 9/11.”
Shortly after the interview, Ramaswamy received condemnation from allies and enemies alike.
The Republicans Against Trump group said, “What does it say about the current Republican party that this truthful, pro-Putin candidate is the party’s young rising star?”
Meanwhile, Scott English, a former Republican aide, said, “I understand that Ramaswamy was 16 when 9/11 happened, but the Saudi involvement was pretty well known when we passed the Homeland Security Act when he was 17.”
This is not the first time Ramaswamy has expressed questionable views on the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil.
He said in a lengthy tweet on Aug. 9: “I don’t believe everything the government told us that day
“There is no credible evidence that 9/11 was an inside job, but ironically, when the government systematically lies about Saudi Arabia’s involvement and the media interferes, it lends plausibility to an otherwise nonsensical claim.”
The comments in the Atlantic come as eight candidates, including Ramaswamy, will battle it out tonight in the first Republican primary debate of the 2024 presidential race.
The debate, which will be hosted by Fox on several of its platforms, will take place at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Wisconsin will become a battleground state and also host the Republican National Convention next year.
Notably, former President Donald Trump will not appear, citing his lead over his rivals in the polls, although he will broadcast a pre-recorded interview with Tucker Carlson at the same time as the debate.
Collected polling data from FiveThirtyEight shows that Donald Trump has consistently been miles ahead of his fellow candidates.
The former president currently has 52.5% of the Republican voter in his camp, while his closest rival, Ron DeSantis, has only 14.5% of the Republican vote.
No other Republican candidate currently exceeds the 10% mark.
In the Democratic camp, Joe Biden has a huge lead over his only other rival, Robert F. Kennedy.
As of Tuesday, Biden holds 65.1% of the Democratic vote, while Kennedy holds just 12.9%.