Megyn Kelly tore into Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday for remarks he made about the potential involvement of U.S. federal agents in the devastating September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Ramaswamy joined CNN host Kaitlan Collins for what turned out to be a heated interview ahead of Wednesday night’s first Republican primary debate.
Collins read a quote from Ramaswamy who told The Atlantic’s John Hendrickson, “I think it is legitimate to say how many police, how many federal agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers.”
“Maybe the answer is zero,” Ramaswamy said. “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 TRUTH is a hard pill for @CNN and the bipartisan establishment to swallow: the government lied to us about 9/11 & the Iraq War for over 20 years, just as they lie to us about Hunter Biden & Ukraine. If we don’t learn from our past mistakes, we are doomed to make them again. pic.twitter.com/PvWc83k1lA
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 22, 2023
“It’s funny,” Ramaswamy told Collins. “The Atlantic is playing the same game as CNN.”
“What I said was, on January 6, I do believe that there were many federal agents in the field, and we deserve to know who they are,” he explained. “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.”
We know that the government and the 9/11 Commission lied, he continued, because of a report that was declassified in 2021.
“This is just lifting the curtain on how media works again,” he stated.
“The truth is there are lies the government has told about 9/11,” he said, “but it’s not the ones that somebody put in my mouth, it’s the one that I articulated.”
Collins also played a clip of Ramaswamy answering a question from BlazeTV’s Alex Stein who asked if the Millennial believed 9/11 “was an inside job.”
“I don’t believe the government has told us the truth,” Ramaswamy replied. “Again, I’m driven by evidence and data. What I’ve said 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.”
Kelly didn’t buy Ramaswamy’s explanation, calling his comments “deeply offensive” and “disrespectful.”
(Video: YouTube)
“He’s been playing footsie with 9/11 trutherism, the idea that 9/11 was an inside job, and I have to say it’s just deeply offensive on a number of levels, not to mention disrespectful to the families of the victims,” Kelly stated.
“Why is he doing this?” she asked. “This is completely unnecessary. We know who’s behind the 9/11 attacks, and it was not the U.S. government.”
When confronted by Collins, Kelly said Ramaswamy “denied that he had done it, and then he blamed the dishonest media.”
“Well, that does not work when it is not actually the media’s fault, and where the press has not actually been dishonest,” Kelly said. “Not to mention, it undermines other legitimate accusations of media dishonesty when a politician throws that term around just to cover his own absurd missteps.”
“Look the whole thing is stuck in my craw. I don’t like seeing somebody like Vivek come in and turn into your classic politician, who just lies,” Kelly said. “Just f**king own it!”
“You screwed up,” Kelly said. “It was a dumbass thing to say. Abide by your ‘truth’ brand and own it.”
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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