Vivek Ramaswamy under fire for 9/11 and Capitol riot conspiracy theory remarks

Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican Party presidential candidate, has come under fire for conspiracy-tinged remarks around the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and 2021 Capitol riots.

The biotech entrepreneur, 38, said it was “legitimate” to question “how many police, how many federal agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers” in a profile by The Atlantic magazine.

He went on: “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.”

The events of Sept 11, 2001, when nearly 3,000 people died, have been thoroughly investigated in an official, bipartisan commission.

It deemed al-Qaeda responsible and uncovered national intelligence and security failures but no evidence of US government involvement.

The furore came as Mr Ramaswamy shared a clip of himself playing tennis shirtless ahead of the first Republican Party debate on Wednesday, highlighting his relative youth compared with a number of the other candidates.

“Three solid hours of debate prep,” he said in an accompanying caption posted on social media which also underscored his outsider credentials and derision of what he dubs “professional politicians”.

In his interview with The Atlantic, Mr Ramaswamy did not suggest the US government was complicit in or responsible for the September 11 attacks, which is a central tenet of the conspiracy theorist “9/11 Truther” movement.

But his comments seemingly questioning whether federal agents were involved in the attacks have been heavily criticised.

The group Republicans Against Trump said: “What does it say about today’s Republican party that this 9/11 truther, pro-Putin candidate is the young rising star of the party?”

Scott English, a former Republican aide, said: “I get that Ramaswamy was 16 when 9/11 happened, but Saudi involvement was pretty well known when we passed the Homeland Security Act when he was 17.”

Mr Ramaswamy walked back the comments in an interview with CNN on Monday night. “What I’ve said is… the [US] government lied about Saudi Arabia’s involvement,” he said.

Kaitlan Collins, the CNN anchor, suggested to the Republican candidate that he was “towing the line when it comes to conspiracy theories”.

Mr Ramaswamy said he stood by previous comments where he stated: “I don’t believe the government has told us the truth.” But he added “of course” the terrorist attacks were not an inside job.

The candidate has also courted controversy with his comments on the Capitol riots, when a pro-Trump mob stormed Congress hoping to halt its certification of Mr Biden’s election win.

‘I don’t know’

Asked what the truth was about what happened he told The Atlantic “I don’t know”, adding: “Whatever it is, we can handle it. Government agents. How many government agents were in the field? Right?”

Hundreds of people have been charged in connection with the riots as part of the largest FBI probe in history. However, some Right-wing conspiracy theorists have made disputed claims that some defendants were undercover officials working as “agent provocateurs” to embarrass Mr Trump.

Mr Ramaswamy entered the race as an upstart challenger but his profile has dramatically risen in concert with his polling numbers. He is vying with Florida governor Ron DeSantis for second place to Donald Trump amid a crowded field of candidates.

Mr Ramaswamy, Mr DeSantis and six other candidates will confront each other on stage on Wednesday night during this week’s debate.

Mr Trump is skipping the debate but will air a pre-recorded interview with Tucker Carlson for some orchestrated counter-programming.