Former Vice President Mike Pence declared that he was “deeply offended” by “conspiracy theories” from Vivek Ramaswamy after his fellow GOP presidential candidate questioned the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Pence, in comments to New Hampshire’s Union Leader newspaper, slammed Ramaswamy for telling conservative Blaze TV’s Alex Stein that he doesn’t believe the government “has told us the truth” about the terror attacks and that he doesn’t believe the 9/11 Commission.
Pence said the 38-year-old Ramaswamy “was probably in grade school” on 9/11 while he was on Capitol Hill.
“I think comments like that, conspiracy theories like that, dishonor the service and sacrifice of our armed forces who fought against our enemies determined to kill us,” Pence said.
Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who has pledged to pardon Donald Trump if elected, said he had “no evidence to suggest” the moon landing was fake before answering Stein’s question on whether 9/11 “was an inside job or exactly what the government tells us.”
“I don’t believe the government has told us the truth,” Ramaswamy said. “Again, 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.”
“I haven’t seen evidence to the contrary, but do I believe everything the government told us about it? Absolutely not. Do I believe the 9/11 Commission? Absolutely not.”
Stein chimed in: “Yeah, 9/11 Commission lied.”
It isn’t the first time that Ramaswamy has shown fondness for conspiracy theories. CNN’s Jake Tapper ripped him for claims about the Federal Reserve last month, Mediaite reported.
Ramaswamy, in a post on X (Twitter’s rebrand) addressing his 9/11 remarks, on Tuesday seemingly referred to an FBI report declassified in 2021 that describes an encounter between a Saudi government employee and hijackers that “was once portrayed as a chance meeting” and now “as a preplanned, well-orchestrated event,” according to NPR.
Ramaswamy claimed that the documents “definitively reveal the government lied to the public about basic facts of Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11.”