Wisconsin GOP Senate Candidate Mistakenly Refers To Sept. 11 As Sept. 18

WASHINGTON -- Tommy Thompson, the former Wisconsin governor who is now vying for the state's open U.S. Senate seat, appears to have misspoken at a recent campaign event, telling voters that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred on Sept. 18.

Thompson made his comments during a June 4 speech to the Lake Country Area Defenders of Liberty in Oconomowoc, Wis., in which he argued that his time as President George W. Bush's Health and Human Services Secretary, a position he held from 2001-2005, prepared him to hit the ground running in Washington if elected to the U.S. Senate.

"[A]nd you want a United States senator that is not going to have to go there and find out where the bathrooms are and learn on the job," he said. "I've been there, I ran one of the largest departments in the federal government."

To underscore his experience, he talked about what he did after the al Qaeda attacks on the United States in 2001.

"And then after 9/18, I was responsible for the public health of all Americans, responsible for preventing any attack using weaponized medicines like the plague, like smallpox, like anthrax, like tellurium," Thompson said. "And I was responsible for all that. So there's hardly anybody that has the knowledge or the base of knowledge that I do."

The comments were first highlighted by the site Blogging Blue, and the video was provided to The Huffington Post by a Democratic source in Wisconsin.

HuffPost contacted the Thompson campaign to ask if the former governor had misspoken or if Sept. 18, 2001 was in fact a significant date.

"There are two plausible explanations as to the recent 9/18 versus 9/11 reference made by Tommy Thompson at a recent event," said campaign spokesman Brian Nemoir. "First, the entire civilized world has the wrong date of this historic and tragic attack on our nation's soil; second, during a spirited campaign appearance Tommy Thompson misspoke regarding an horrific episode in our country's history during which he played a key leadership role. The campaign is fully examining both scenarios."

He declined to answer a follow-up question on whether that meant Thompson misspoke.

Thompson is competing against state Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, businessman Eric Hovde and former Rep. Mark Neumann for the GOP Senate nomination. The winner will face Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) in November.

With high name recognition, Thompson is currently leading in the polls. A recent survey by Marquette Law School gave him an 8 point lead over Baldwin. In the primary, 34 percent of likely voters back Thompson, compared to 16 percent for Neumann, 14 percent for Hovde and 10 percent for Fitzgerald.

Transcript of Thompson's remarks:

And you want a United States senator that is not going to have to go there and find out where the bathrooms are and learn on the job. I've been there, I ran one of the largest departments in the federal government.

I'll give you how big my department was: We have all the children programs, all the elderly programs, all the welfare programs, all the social services programs, all the drug production programs, we run FDA which regulates 25 percent of the gross national product, run CDC which is the organization that determines what an infectious disease is, ran the National Institutes of Health which is the greatest research center in the world, responsible for all the Native Americans and Alaskan Natives' health, responsible for all the international health of anybody that's coming to the United States.

And then after 9/18, I was responsible for the public health of all Americans, responsible for preventing any attack using weaponized medicines like the plague, like smallpox, like anthrax, like tellurium. And I was responsible for all that. So there's hardly anybody that has the knowledge or the base of knowledge that I do. If you want a conservative that can change things around, that is going to make the tough decisions right now, you want me, and I make no bones about it.