
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy had an interesting exchange with a Washington Post reporter who asked him to condemn white supremacy at a campaign stop in Iowa on Tuesday.
This is the stupidest question I’ve gotten yet from the media.
And that says a lot. https://t.co/F4MhgB8WZO
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) January 3, 2024
“I’m not going to recite some catechism for you. I’m against vicious racial discrimination in this country. I’m not pledging allegiance to your new religion of modern wokeism,” Ramaswamy said. “Do I condemn vicious racial discrimination? Yes, I do. Am I going to play your silly game of gotcha? No, I am not.”
The question posed by the reporter came shortly after former nine-term Rep. Steve King (R-IA) endorsed Ramaswamy for president. Five years ago, King made comments that politicians from both sides of the aisle deemed racist, and led to his being stripped of his committee assignments and eventually an electoral loss.
While King had a history of controversial language, it was an interview with the New York Times in 2019 that led to his downfall.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”King said in the interview.
He later issued a statement clarifying that he did not advocate for white supremacy instead arguing he was a nationalist defending the values of western civilization.
Ramaswamy welcomed King’s endorsement and even defended the former congressman.
“I’m proud to have Steve King’s endorsement, and I think that he has been wrongfully villainized by a media that has not once quoted the alleged racist remark or whatever it is that he made, and I just reject a lot of this mainstream media narrative thing,” Ramaswamy said to a reporter.
Ramaswamy’s fiery response has not been uncommon for him on the campaign trail and has set him apart from some of the other Republican candidates. He concluded his answer by calling out the media for even asking the type of question he had to answer.
“Shame on you. Look people in the eye and tell them what you’ve actually failed to tell them for the last five years. Own the accountability for your own failures as the media — that’s how we rebuild trust in this country. And until then, I don’t have a lot of patience to play the games,” Ramaswamy told the reporter.