‘Up There With Your 9/11 Theories’: Gavin Newsom Slaps Back at Vivek Ramaswamy
Giada Papini Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
California Gov. Gavin Newsom slapped back at Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Thursday after the Republican presidential candidate attacked his “climate change agenda.”
The spat started after Newsom shared a video on Twitter where he railed against the oil industry and the burning of gas and coal.
In the video, Newsom said:
This climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis. This climate crisis persists. It’s not complicated. It’s not complicated. It’s the burning of oil, it’s the burning of gas, it’s the burning of coal, and we need to call that out. For decades and decades, the oil industry has been playing each and every one of us in this room for fools. They’ve been buying off politicians, they’ve been denying and delaying science and fundamental information that they were privy too, that they didn’t share or they manipulated. Their deceit and denial going back decades has created the conditions that persist here today.
Ramaswamy lashed out at Newsom’s remarks in his own post, reacting, “My message to @GavinNewsom: The climate change agenda has NOTHING to do with the climate & everything to do with letting China catch up to the U.S. It’s not complicated. Drill. Frack. Use Coal. Embrace Nuclear.”
Newsom then slapped back with a reference to Ramaswamy’s controversial comments about 9/11.
“Keep auditioning for the hall of fame for the most ignorant analysis of science,” Newsom tweeted. “Your coal agenda is up there with your 9/11 theories.”
Ramaswamy’s comments questioning whether federal agents were present on the planes that hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 have received criticism from those on both the left and right, including Megyn Kelly, who called out Ramaswamy for refusing to “own” his remarks.
“He’s been playing footsie with 9/11 trutherism,” said Kelly last month. “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.”
