Republican presidential candidates Mike Pence and Vivek Ramaswamy exchanged barbs after the former vice president said he was “deeply offended” by Ramaswamy’s comments that he does not believe the 9/11 Commission.
Pence, in an interview with the Union Leader in New Hampshire, addressed Ramaswamy’s comments that the conservative entrepreneur made to Blaze TV when he was asked whether he believed the government about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“I don’t believe the government has told us the truth,” Ramaswamy said. “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,” Ramaswamy added. “Do I believe the 9/11 Commission? Absolutely not.”
Pence told the Union Leader the comments “deeply offended” him.
“I understand he was probably in grade school on 9/11 and I was on Capitol Hill,” Pence said.
“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,” the former vice president added.
Ramaswamy responded Tuesday night on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, writing in a lengthy post that he believed the U.S. government had “lied to the public about basic facts of Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11, until documents were declassified and they changed their story 20 years later.”
Ramaswamy, who has seen a bump in the polls in recent weeks, went on to argue the U.S. government has lied to the public about other matters, including unidentified aerial phenomenon, the origins of COVID-19, and “Hunter Biden’s laptop.”
“This fuels rampant public distrust. There is no credible evidence that 9/11 was an ‘inside job,’ but ironically, when the government systematically lies about Saudi involvement and the media runs interference, that lends plausibility to an otherwise unlikely claim,” Ramaswamy wrote.
“There’s no such thing as a noble lie,” he added. “With all due respect to the former VP, the reason the people don’t trust the government is because the government doesn’t trust the people.”
Pence and Ramaswamy have qualified for the first GOP primary debate, which is scheduled for Aug. 23 in Milwaukee.
A RealClearPolitics average of GOP primary polls shows Ramaswamy running in third place at an average of 6 percent, with Pence right behind him at 5 percent.