During a campaign stop in Iowa on Tuesday, a Washington Post reporter asked Vivek Ramaswamy if he denounced white supremacy.
Presidential candidates were asked questions after receiving the executive order. approval Regarding former Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, who has faced allegations of racism for comments that allegedly condoned white supremacy. according to to the New York Times.
However, Ramaswamy told reporters that he had no intention of pledging “allegiance to the new religion of modern wokeism.”
“I'm not going to bow down to your religion,” he added.
Instead, Ramaswamy cut to the heart of the matter.
“Of course, I condemn any kind of vicious racism in this country,” Ramaswamy said. “But I think the presumption in your question is fundamentally based on the falsehood that that is the primary form of racism we see in this country today.”
“Institutionalized racism…is based on affirmative action,” he continued. “It's based on actually discriminating against people based on the color of their skin in a way that's actually institutionalized today.”
As expected, after Steve King announced that he would endorse me, @wapo She tried to get me to play a game of “denounce white supremacy,” but refused to actually define “white supremacy,” which in recent years includes concepts like “punctuality” and “white supremacy.” did. pic.twitter.com/V4e01qcsqw
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRAmaswamy) January 3, 2024
Citing the Jussie Smollett hoax as a false example, Racism in the mediaRamaswamy told reporters, “Please stop covering this travesty of some fabricated story that exists on the tiny fringes of the American people today.”
When the reporter said he did not answer the question, Ramaswamy replied: “Do I denounce vicious racism?” Yes, I do. Are you going to play your stupid “gotcha” game? No, it's not.Frankly, this is why people lost faith [in mainstream media]” (Related: Vivek scorches CNN, claims he's omitting discussion about 'prank')
“Do you want to know what is the best way to end discrimination based on race?” he asked. “Stop discriminating based on race. Then we can move this country forward.”
