GQP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has been verbally jousting with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins about his claim that he was misquoted regarding an article that ran in The Atlantic.
Ramaswamy was answering a question regarding one of his more bombastic claims about whether the truth was being told about federal agents being involved in the January 6 insurrection. The candidate invoked the government investigation of the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers, and said the government had lied in their investigation. Ramaswamy seemed to question whether federal agents were involved in the 9/11 attacks.
“I think it is legitimate to say, How many police, how many federal agents were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers? Like, I think we want—maybe the answer is zero, probably is zero for all I know, right?”
Ramaswamy tried to walk back his comments and said he was misquoted by the Atlantic when Collins pressed him on his 9/11 beliefs.
“What I said is on Jan. 6, I do believe that there were many federal agents in the field and we deserve to know who they are,” Ramaswamy said on CNN’s “The Source.” “On 9/11, what I’ve said is that the government lied and this is incontrovertible evidence, Kaitlan, the government lied about Saudi Arabia’s involvement.”
“Again, I asked that reporter to send a recording because it was on the record. He refused to do it, but we had a free flowing conversation,” he said.
The Hill
Kaitlan Collins jousted back.
“I think people look at those comments, they look at what you said in The Atlantic — what you say you were misquoted. They look at comments that you’ve made about the Federal Reserve adding zeros to media companies bank accounts, and I mean, it looks like you’re floating conspiracy theories with this defense of ‘I’m just asking questions,’” she said.
Then John Hendrickson, the author of the Atlantic article, pulled out his audio tapes of the conversation Ramaswamy was referring to.
The campaign response?
“Vivek was referring to Jan. 6, not 9/11, as we have clarified with the Atlantic. It was a very free-flowing conversation, so we are not blaming the reporter, but the real question Vivek has is about undercover federal agents on Jan. 6, 2021, not 9/11,” his campaign spokesperson said.