- Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy refused to back down from a rather startling opinion.
- Ramaswamy compared Democratic Representative Ayanna Pressley and author Ibram X. Kendi to the Grand Wizards of the KKK.
- Both Pressley and Kendi are black.
After Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy compared a black female MP to the grand wizard of the KKK, you’d think he would back down.
No.
Ramaswamy is stepping up his attack on Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley and activist author Ibram X. Kendi, both of whom he likened to the white supremacist organization responsible for horrific crimes against black people.
On CNN’s “State of the Union” show Sunday morning, host Dana Bash pressed the presidential candidate, explaining that the comments in question echoed the KKK’s message.
“There’s a worldview that says the cure for past discrimination is present discrimination, that if you’re black or brown you have to have a particular point of view. It’s from Ibram Kendi. It’s from Ayanna Pressley, the people. I quoted him in my speech yesterday,” Ramaswamy said, suggesting they should be “intellectually honest” and “get to the heart” of the debate.
“But can you have an intellectually honest conversation when you accuse her of being a big KKK witch?” Bash pressed.
Ramaswamy did not back down.
As she spoke at a campaign stop in Iowa on Friday, Ramaswamy took issue with a comment by Pressley in 2019 that there was no need for “more black faces who don’t want to be a voice.” black,” which his team said referred to his demand for diversity in politics, not just skin color, The Hill reported.
He also called out author Kendi for her comments in her book ‘How to be anti-racist’. A spokesperson for Kendi did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
“These are the words of the great modern wizards of the modern KKK,” Ramaswamy said on the campaign trail in Iowa, NBC reported.
Pressley, one of the most progressive Democrats in Congress, was the first black woman elected to represent her state in Congress. A spokesperson for Pressley’s office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on Sunday, but his team used Ramaswamy’s comments to raise funds.
“We don’t usually engage in these attacks in bad faith, but yesterday a line was crossed.. A Republican candidate has called Ayanna ‘the modern great witch of the KKK’ because she speaks out against racial injustice,” Pressley’s team said during the fundraising campaign, Politico reported. “It’s retrograde and harmful, but that’s the point.”
The controversial businessman and presidential candidate has denounced “woke” culture, making it a focal point of his campaign. His antics could pay off as he rose in the polls after the first Republican presidential debate last week.
businessinsider
