2024 GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins a “petulant teenager” in a Tuesday post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, in response to a Monday interview where she pressed him about topics including his recent comments on 9/11.
“Hilarious interview with @CNN last night,” Ramaswamy wrote in his post. “Felt like I was talking to a petulant teenager.”
In the interview Monday, Collins pressed Ramaswamy about comments he made in an article by The Atlantic released the same day. In the article, Ramaswamy questioned how many police or federal agents were on the planes that hit the twin towers. He told her that the article misquoted him.
“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.”
In response, Collins said she felt Ramaswamy is using his platform to push false claims with under the guise of “just asking questions.”
“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.
Collins also pressed Ramaswamy on comments he made about arming the Taiwanese people with guns to defend against a Chinese invasion. Ramaswamy fired back at Collins by stating she wasn’t taking his whole plan to push back against Chinese attempts to take over Taiwan into account.
“I will not allow someone to put words in my mouth,” he said.