The first Republican debate is about to begin, though it’s more of a junior varsity event. Donald Trump won’t be on the stage, but his presence will be felt either way. The former president has a comfortable lead in the polls, with many wondering if it’s now an insurmountable lead as the rest of the field virtually has no path to overtake him.
For billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, a recent media development couldn’t come at a worse time. No subject is more sensitive than the 9/11 attacks, and he appeared to channel the trutherism nonsense in a recent interview with The Atlantic. His campaign claims he was misquoted, but the publication released the full audio, and it’s not good (via Politico):
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was caught in a blunder after he claimed The Atlantic misquoted him floating the idea that the federal government was perhaps involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
During a CNN appearance on Monday night, anchor Kaitlan Collins questioned him about the comments, to which Ramaswamy responded that they were actually about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He made a similar comment suggesting he was misquoted to Semafor. But on Tuesday afternoon, The Atlantic published interview audio that verified the original quote about 9/11 was correct.
“I think it is legitimate to say how many police, how many federal agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers,” he told The Atlantic in a profile that was published on Monday. “Maybe the answer is zero. It probably is zero for all I know, right? I have no reason to think it was anything other than zero.”
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The Guardian included the entire quote:
The biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, a contender for the Republican presidential nomination, was condemned for conspiracy-tinged remarks about the events of 9/11 and the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
“I think it is legitimate to say how many police, how many federal agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers,” Ramaswamy said, in a profile published by the Atlantic on Monday.
“Maybe the answer is zero. It probably is zero for all I know, right? I have no reason to think it was anything other than zero. But if we’re doing a comprehensive assessment of what happened on 9/11, we have a 9/11 commission, absolutely that should be an answer the public knows the answer to.”
[…]
Seeking to appeal to Trump voters, Ramaswamy seems eager to cover similar ground. Earlier this month, on the rightwing Blaze TV, he was asked if he thought 9/11 was an “inside job” or happened “exactly like the government tells us”.
“I don’t believe the government has told us the truth,” Ramaswamy said. “I’m driven by evidence and data. What I’ve seen in the last several years is we have to be skeptical of what the government does tell us.”
January 6 aside, the 9/11 stuff is crazy town, Vivek. The question is, will it be asked by the moderators or weaponized as an attack on the debate stage tonight? It should be asked, and I would bet Chris Christie would be the one to deliver the haymaker on that point.
There are some things that are up for debate that the establishment media considers conspiratorial. 9/11 is not one of them. It wasn't an inside job. Enough.
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