Wisconsin GOP Assembly candidate posts debunked 9/11 conspiracy theory on Facebook

On Tuesday, Wisconsin Republican Assembly candidate Jim Engstrand posted a long-debunked 9/11 conspiracy theory to his personal Facebook account.

The post features text saying, “NEVER FORGET 9/10/2001 When $2.3 trillion went missing from the Pentagon.”

Engstrand’s caption reads, “Hmmmm, is this real?”

According to a fact-check piece by Reuters updated last September, the misleading post relies on a press conference given by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Sept. 10, 2001. Contrary to the theory, Rumsfeld did not say that $2.3 trillion was missing, but that $2.3 trillion in transactions could not be tracked due to an outdated network of technological systems.

“Our financial systems are decades old,” Rumsfeld said. “According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions. We cannot share information from floor to floor in this building. Because it’s stored on dozens of different technological systems that are inaccessible or incompatible.”

According to AP News, Rumsfeld’s press conference was not the first time the $2.3 trillion figure was mentioned. The figure was included in an audit report by the Defense Department’s inspector general released in February 2000.

Engstrand told Heartland Signal on Friday that he did not share the meme to endorse it but rather ask questions about the 9/11 attacks to learn more about them.

“I didn’t make a claim, I asked if the meme was true. To which many say it was and many say it wasn’t,” Engstrand said via email. “I simply am curious because the 27 years and one year in combat that I served has provided me with an abundance of questions about the events surrounding the happenings of 9/11.”

“Either way, I believe I as well as all Americans deserve to know,” he continued. “I lost thousands of fellow Americans on that day, and throughout the course of years we spent in Iraq and Afghanistan, the least I can do is ask questions to get to the facts wherever they may lead.”

Engstrand won the Republican nomination for Wisconsin’s newly drawn 14^th Assembly District seat, which reportedly has an approximate 57% Democratic swing. He will face Democratic nominee Angelito Tenorio and independent candidate Steven Shevey in November.