Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) — who was censured by the House of Representatives after he was caught pulling a fire alarm in a House office building on September 30 as Democrats tried to delay voting on a Republican stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown — issued a statement Monday after The Daily Beast reported he had promoted conspiratorial theories regarding 9/11 on his blog when he was a high school principal.
In 2011, when Bowman served as principal at the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, his online journal included a section titled “Recapitulate” in which he mused that the collapse of Building 7 on 9/11 came from a controlled demolition and cited the films “Loose Change” and “Zeitgeist,” the first of which claimed that the U.S. orchestrated the 9/11 attacks while the second, the Daily Beast writes, “argues that a ring of globalist bankers controls the Federal Reserve and periodically contrives national tragedies to compel the U.S. government to embark on wars and take out greater debt.”
On Monday, Bowman responded to The Daily Beast’s report, saying, “Well over a decade ago, as I was debating diving into a doctoral degree, I explored a wide range of books, films, and articles across a wide swath of the political spectrum and processed my thoughts in a personal blog that few people ever read.”
“I don’t believe anything that these cranks have said, and my life’s work has proven that,” he continued. “As a Congressman, I’ve written a Congressional Resolution condemning a dangerous conspiracy theory, I’ve stood up to MAGA extremists, and I’ve called out the endless bull**** of the far-right.”
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He declared he had since “learned how misinformation spreads,” adding, “I regret posting anything about any of these people. Anyone who looks at my work today knows where I stand.”
A congressional ethics report about the fire alarm incident stated:
Following mounting criticism and calls for the Department of Justice to investigate Rep. Bowman for his actions in triggering a false alarm of fire in the Cannon House Building earlier in the day, Rep. Bowman sought to “personally clear up confusion” and extinguish the controversy. To this end, Rep. Bowman released an official statement where he claimed that he “mistakenly” activated the fire alarm “thinking it would open the door.
However, [Office of Congressional Ethics] staff obtained evidence appearing to contradict Rep. Bowman’s claim that he mistakenly activated the fire alarm.
Surveillance video obtained by the OCE shows Rep. Bowman deliberately pulling the fire alarm lever without ever looking back to determine whether the alarm facilitated the opening of the emergency doors.