Vivek Ramaswamy’s New Hampshire campaign chairman, who hosted an event for the presidential candidate on the eve of the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 attacks, is a 9/11 truther.
Bitcoin mogul Bruce Fenton—the co-chairman of Ramaswamy’s campaign in the Granite state and a failed U.S. Senate candidate—has questioned whether a plane actually hit the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, and asked whether the Bush administration was behind the attacks.
"Hillary and WTC Building 7 have something in common ... both collapsed on 9-11 for no reason," wrote Fenton in one Twitter post. In other posts, he dismissed the "laughable US narrative on 9-11" and challenged his followers to provide video proof that a plane crashed into the Pentagon. He has also accused the Bush administration of spreading "propaganda" about Muslims in order to "garner support for an unjust war of aggression."
Fenton hosted Ramaswamy for a campaign event at his farm in New Hampshire on Sunday, and the candidate, who has also raised questions about the official narrative of 9/11, posted photos of the get-together on Twitter. Ramaswamy has said he doesn’t believe the U.S. government was "completely forthright about 9/11" and asked "how many federal agents were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers?" in a recent interview with a reporter from the Atlantic. He later denied that he was suggesting Sept. 11 was an inside job and said he was just questioning whether the U.S. government downplayed Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the attack.
"Kicked off with a big Sunday morning event in Hollis, NH & picnic at Fenton Farm in Durham. Time for a little football and US Open later today!" wrote Ramaswamy on Sunday.
The gathering took place one day before the 22nd anniversary of September 11 and followed weeks of public scrutiny into Ramaswamy’s own comments about 9/11. In a statement on Monday, Ramaswamy called the terrorist attack that killed 2,977 Americans a "catastrophe" and commemorated the first responders.
Ramaswamy named Fenton as his New Hampshire campaign co-chairman earlier this month. Fenton has published many Twitter posts questioning the 9/11 attacks.
"The ‘official story’ for 9-11 is that a passport fell out of the hijackers pocket and was thrown free of the fireball to float to the ground and be found by an anonymous person who immediately gave it to the FBI," wrote Fenton on Monday, alongside a video of someone waving a passport in front of footage of the burning World Trade Center, which appeared to mock the claim.
"So you watch the video of the plane hitting—the massive fireball—the collapse of millions of tons of debris into a dust cloud that lasted for days—where the dust was still around blocks away for a year and still believe the passport floated to the ground?" wrote Fenton in March.
He also expressed doubts about the "official story" in August, prompting one of his followers to ask: "If it was a conspiracy, would that mean it’s one orchestrated by Republicans?"
"Probably," responded Fenton. "GW Bush was one of the worst presidents we’ve ever had."
In another post, Fenton called the limited video footage of the attack on the Pentagon "extremely suspicious" and challenged his followers to "Show me a video of plane hitting."
"Just asking a basic & very reasonable question," wrote Fenton. "Why is there no footage of the plane hitting other than a few frames from a convenience store?"
"The ‘official story’ has zero footage from the pentagon. Can you explain this?" he added.
After another Twitter user responded that "Everyone [in the building] saw the plane crash into the Pentagon," Fenton said he still wasn’t persuaded.
"Your claim is just so incredulous I’m making sure I’m understanding it," he wrote. "Got it. You claim that they took all the—likely hundreds—of cameras in a massive section of the pentagon right before this claim of it being hit by a plane. Wow. Is that the official US version of truth?"
In other posts, Fenton slammed the U.S. government’s response to 9/11.
"The reaction to 9-11 was far worse than the attacks," he wrote in 2021.
Fenton is a vocal critic of Israel, as well. He posted in July that "Israel is an apartheid state." He also objected to U.S. military aid to Israel—a contentious position that Ramaswamy also said he held before shifting his stance in late August.
"Despite U.S. politicians sending billions of U.S. taxpayer worker wages to Israel, an already rich country and despite the massively powerful AIPAC and other lobbies, most Americans have no clue what the conflict is about," wrote Fenton.
After this story was published, Fenton reiterated his views on Israel and 9/11 on Twitter.
"Of course [Israel is] an apartheid state -- how is it not?" he wrote, before deleting the post.
Fenton also pushed back against one Twitter user who said a plane crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
"And you don’t question the official narrative?" asked Fenton. "Really?I"
Ramaswamy's campaign has not responded to a request for comment.
Update 5:41 p.m.: This post has been updated.