Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy expressed support for a variety of conservative conspiracy theories at the 4th GOP presidential primary debate Wednesday, suggesting at one point that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was an “inside job.”
“Why am I the only person on this stage, at least, who can say that Jan. 6 now does look like it was an inside job?” Ramaswamy said, before he listed other topics popular in conspiracy circles.
“That the government lied to us for 20 years about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11? That the great replacement theory is not some grand conservative conspiracy theory, but a basic statement of the Democratic Party’s platform? That the 2020 election was indeed stolen by Big Tech?”
The Capitol riot conspiracy theory in particular gained momentum after Jan. 6 rioter Ray Epps was accused without evidence of being a government informant or agent, with critics arguing that the attack on the Capitol in 2021 was a “false flag” event.
Over 1,200 individuals have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot, and more than 400 have been sentenced to periods of imprisonment. Over a thousand other Jan. 6 participants have been identified but not arrested.
Ramaswamy’s comments about Jan. 6 follow recent conspiratorial remarks he made about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In an August story published by The Atlantic, Ramaswamy told the publication that he wanted “the truth about 9/11.”
“I think it is fair to ask how many police officers, how many federal agents, were on the planes that struck the Twin Towers. Perhaps the answer is none. It probably is none for all I know? I have no reason to think it was anything other than zero. If we’re doing a thorough review of what happened on 9/11, we have a 9/11 commission, surely that should be an answer the public knows the answer to,” he said in The Atlantic’s interview.
Ramaswamy later stood by the remarks. “It is important to have a government that tells the truth to its people, that people can trust, and trust its people back,” he said.
Ramaswamy isn’t the only Republican politician to have promoted a Jan. 6 conspiracy theory in recent weeks.
Last month, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah shared a post on X that argued there were “undercover federal agents disguised as MAGA.”
“I can’t wait to ask FBI Director Christopher Wray about this at our next oversight hearing,” Lee wrote in his tweet.
The man Lee was referring to in the post is a Trump supporter currently serving 4 years in federal prison on Jan. 6-related charges.
Megan Lebowitz
Megan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.
Rebecca Shabad
Ryan J. Reilly
Gary Grumbach
and
Katherine Koretski
contributed
