Highlights:
Ramaswamy Called Trump’s Actions On January 6 “Downright Abhorrent.” According to ABC News, “Ramaswamy’s views on Jan. 6 and Donald Trump’s role in it have evolved since 2021. The presidential candidate once called Trump’s actions on the day ‘downright abhorrent’ and criticized ‘stolen election’ claims in his second book, ‘Nation of Victims.’” [ABC News, 8/28/23]
Ramaswamy Called Trump’s Behavior On January 6 “Egregious.” According to a tweet from Ramaswamy’s personal account, “Both are terrifying. Unfortunately Trump’s egregious behavior last week blinds us from seeing that Big Tech’s cure is worse. Makes for a winning game for China in the long run. @ElbridgeColby https://x.com/xnoybis999/sta/xnoybis999/status/1348993908802420737.” [Twitter - @VivekGRamaswamy, 1/12/21]
Ramaswamy Said What Trump Did During The January 6 Riot Was “Wrong.” According to a tweet from Ramaswamy’s personal account, “What Trump did last week was wrong. Downright abhorrent. Plain and simple. I’ve said it before and did so in my piece.” [Twitter - @VivekGRamaswamy, 1/12/21]
Ramaswamy On Trump On January 6: “Standing By While Protesters Turned Violent, I Think, Was A Bad Mistake Of Leadership.” According to ABC News, “Ramaswamy, who has said that he would have made different decisions than Trump on Jan. 6 but does not consider Trump’s actions criminal, told ABC News that his comments condemning Trump in the days after the riot were about how he handled Jan. 6. ‘What I would have done? ... Starting that day under the same circumstances, I would have said, as soon as there are people violently approaching the Capitol, 'Stand down,’’ he said in an interview with ABC News. ‘Standing by while protesters turned violent, I think, was a bad mistake of leadership,’ he added while reiterating, ‘I don't think Donald Trump was the cause of Jan. 6.’” [ABC News, 8/28/23]
Ramaswamy: “I Really Thought What Trump Did Was Regrettable.” According to the New York Times, “‘Also what I said at the time was that I really thought what Trump did was regrettable,’ he said. ‘I would have handled it very differently if I was in his shoes. I will remind you that I am running for U.S. president in the same race that Donald Trump is running right now.’” [New York Times, 8/30/23]
Ramaswamy Said Trump Showed “Bad Judgment” On January 6. According to Newsweek, “In response, Ramaswamy claimed that Trump actions surrounding January 6 were ‘bad judgment,’ but not a crime. ‘I've been consistent all along that I would have made different judgments than Donald Trump made,’ he said. ‘That is why I am running in this race for the presidency, the same race that he's in, because I would have made different – and I believe better – judgments for the country.” [Newsweek, 7/23/23]
Ramaswamy Said He Would Not Have Urged Supporters To March On The U.S. Capitol. According to ABC News, “When Stephanopoulos drilled down, Ramaswamy said he wouldn't have urged supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol, as Trump did two years ago -- though Ramaswamy also noted Trump at one point called for peaceful demonstrations -- and he wouldn't have endorsed competing but unauthorized slates of electors before Congress, an alleged criminal scheme detailed in two of Trump's indictments.” [ABC News, 9/3/23]
Ramaswamy Said He Would Not Have Endorsed Sending Unauthorized Certificates Of Electors To Congress. According to ABC News, “When Stephanopoulos drilled down, Ramaswamy said he wouldn't have urged supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol, as Trump did two years ago -- though Ramaswamy also noted Trump at one point called for peaceful demonstrations -- and he wouldn't have endorsed competing but unauthorized slates of electors before Congress, an alleged criminal scheme detailed in two of Trump's indictments.” [ABC News, 9/3/23]
Ramaswamy Said “Institutions Did Hold” On January 6 Thanks To Mike Pence. According to Mediate, “Thankfully, Ramaswamy argued, Pence stood in the breach. ‘Mike Pence, a man I have great respect for, decided it was his constitutional duty to resist the president’s attempts to get him to unilaterally overturn the results of the election, even in the face of the January 6 Capitol riot,’ he wrote. ‘Our institutions did hold.’” [Mediate, 8/25/23]
Ramaswamy Called Trump’s Voter Fraud Claims “Weak.” According to an excerpt of Ramaswamy’s book “Nation of Victims” published in Politico, “While Donald Trump promised to lead the nation to recommit itself to the pursuit of greatness, what he delivered in the end was just another tale of grievance, a persecution complex that swallowed much of the Republican Party whole. Trump took a page from the Abrams playbook. His claims were just as weak as Abrams’. She claimed voter suppression in her 2018 defeat, he claimed voter fraud two years later.” [Politico, 9/12/22]
Ramaswamy Said That Top Election Officials, No Matter What Party They Belonged To, In Practically Every State, Found No Evidence Of Significant Fraud. According to an excerpt of Ramaswamy’s book “Nation of Victims” published in Politico, “Top election officials in virtually every state, regardless of party, said they’d found no evidence of any significant level of fraud. Our institutions did hold, in the end. But they shouldn’t have been tested.” [Politico, 9/12/22]
Ramaswamy Said Trump’s Lawsuits “Came Nowhere Close To Changing The Outcome In A Single State.” According to an excerpt of Ramaswamy’s book “Nation of Victims” published in Politico, “He filed scores of lawsuits over various claims of fraud, as was his right, but they came nowhere close to changing the outcome in a single state, let alone the several swing states whose results he needed to overturn. In many cases, judges the president himself had nominated ruled against him, a sign of health in our nation’s institutions.” [Politico, 9/12/22]
Ramaswamy Wrote That No Republican Had Ever Presented Him Convincing Evidence That The 2020 Election Was Stolen. According to CNN, “Todd then read aloud the part of the book in which Ramaswamy wrote of the 2020 election: “The fact that all of our governmental institutions so unanimously found no evidence of significant fraud is telling. Furthermore, I’ve talked to many Republicans at all levels of government, and not one has ever presented convincing evidence that the 2020 election was stolen from President Trump; very few have seriously tried. I don’t believe that most Republican politicians actually think the election was stolen.’” [CNN, 8/31/23]
Ramaswamy Said Trump’s Attempts To Overturn The 2020 Election Was A “Tale Of Grievance” Resulting From “A Persecution Complex.” According to Mediate, “In Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence, Ramaswamy tore into former President Donald Trump for his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. According to the future candidate, Trump was guilty of selling a ‘tale of grievance’ fueled by ‘a persecution complex.’ ‘Accepting the outcomes of elections and having a peaceful transition of power is part of what it means to be a constitutional republic,’ he continued before noting, ‘Top election officials in virtually every state, regardless of party, said they’d found no evidence of any significant level of fraud.’” [Mediate, 8/25/23]
Ramaswamy Called The January 6 Riot “Disgraceful.” According to an op-ed co-written by Ramaswamy and Jed Rubenfeld in the Wall Street Journal, “Facebook and Twitter banned President Trump and numerous supporters after last week’s disgraceful Capitol riot, and Google, Apple and Amazon blocked Twitter alternative Parler—all based on claims of ‘incitement to violence’ and ‘hate speech.’” [Op-Ed – Vivek Ramaswamy and Jed Rubenfeld, Wall Street Journal, 1/11/21]
Ramaswamy Called The Attack On The U.S. Capitol “A Stain On American History.” According to an op-ed co-written by Ramaswamy and Jed Rubenfeld in the Wall Street Journal, “Hard cases make bad law, and Mr. Trump presented America with a hard case last week. The breach of the Capitol is a stain on American history, and Silicon Valley seized on the attack to do what Congress couldn’t by suppressing the kind of political speech the First Amendment was designed to protect.” [Op-Ed – Vivek Ramaswamy and Jed Rubenfeld, Wall Street Journal, 1/11/21]
Ramaswamy Referred To The Attack On The U.S. Capitol “Last Week’s Horror.” According to an op-ed co-written by Ramaswamy and Jed Rubenfeld in the Wall Street Journal, “There’s more at stake than free speech. Suppression of dissent breeds terror. The answer to last week’s horror should be to open more channels of dialogue, not to close them off. If disaffected Americans no longer have an outlet to be heard, the siege of Capitol Hill will look like a friendly parley compared with what’s to come.” [Op-Ed – Vivek Ramaswamy and Jed Rubenfeld, Wall Street Journal, 1/11/21]
Ramaswamy Called January 6 “A Dark Day For Democracy.” According to ABC News, “‘It was a dark day for democracy. The loser of the last election refused to concede the race, claimed the election was stolen, raised hundreds of millions of dollars from loyal supporters, and is considering running for executive office again,’ he wrote in the book. ‘I'm referring, of course, to Donald Trump.’” [ABC News, 8/28/23]
VIDEO: Ramaswamy Said He Cried While Watching The Attack On The U.S. Capitol. According to an appearance by Ramaswamy on Fox News’ “Fox News at Night with Shannon Bream” via YouTube, “This might be controversial to say but I think that when I saw the disgrace that unfolded at the footsteps of the Capitol on January 6, I cried. I was in tears when I watched on television that day.” [Fox News at Night via YouTube, 1/26/21]
Ramaswamy Said The January 6 Attack On The U.S. Capitol “Does Look Like It Was An Inside Job.” According to NBC News, “Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy voiced support for a variety of far-right conspiracy theories at the fourth GOP presidential primary debate Wednesday, suggesting at one point that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was an ‘inside job.’ ‘Why am I the only person on this stage, at least, who can say that Jan. 6 now does look like it was an inside job?’ Ramaswamy said, before he listed other topics popular in conspiracy circles.” [NBC News, 12/6/23]
Ramaswamy Reiterated His Claim That The January 6 Attack On The Capitol Might Have Been An “Inside Job.” According to Politico, “In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Wednesday night, Ramaswamy doubled down on some of the conspiracy theories he listed his support for during the debate: that Jan. 6 was an ‘inside job,’ that the government lied to Americans about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11, the validity of the great replacement theory and that the 2020 election was stolen by ‘Big Tech.’ ‘I was an anti-woke crusader leaving the business world and if you had asked me three years ago, Is there some chance January 6th is an inside job?, I would’ve said that was crazy talk,’ Ramaswamy said Wednesday. ‘I would say looking at the facts of the video footage that have come out, Dana, it is shocking that you still haven’t gotten a clear answer on how many federal agents were in the field that day.’ Congressional investigations have long rebutted the Jan. 6 claim made by Ramaswamy.” [Politico, 12/7/23]
Ramaswamy Accused “Big Tech” Of Stealing The 2020 Election And The “National Security Establishment” Of Stealing The 2016 Election From Trump By Touting Russian Collusion Theories. According to the New York Times, “As if reading a far-right message board, Mr. Ramaswamy continued, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen by ‘big tech’ (several intelligence agencies called it ‘the most secure in American history’) and that the 2016 election, which Mr. Trump won, was also ‘stolen from him by the national security establishment’ because of the investigation into allegations that his campaign had colluded with Russia.” [New York Times, 12/6/23]
Ramaswamy Called January 6 “Happy Entrapment Day.” According to CNN, “On Saturday, he marked the third anniversary of the Capitol riot by referencing the false conspiracy theory that federal agents helped rioters breach the Capitol, calling the anniversary ‘entrapment day.’ ‘Happy Entrapment Day,’ Ramaswamy posted on social media.” [CNN, 1/6/24]
Ramaswamy Blamed January 6 On “Pervasive Censorship.” According to the Washington Examiner, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy blamed ‘pervasive’ censorship for the Jan. 6 riot. Speaking with Tucker Carlson at the Family Leadership Summit, Ramaswamy reasoned that the demonstrators were driven to riot after their voices were suppressed. ‘What caused Jan. 6 is pervasive censorship in this country in the lead-up to Jan. 6,’ he said. ‘You tell people in this country they cannot speak. That is when they scream. You tell people they cannot scream. That is when they tear things down.’ ‘Until we look ourselves in the mirror and admit the truth on that, we will not move forward as a country,’ Ramaswamy added.” [Washington Examiner, 7/15/23]
Ramaswamy Said Blaming Trump For January 6 Was “Unproductive.” According to USA Today, “Ramaswamy said that he believes it is ‘unproductive for our country to blame Trump for January 6, because it exonerates everyone else from introspection on what actually led to the frustrations of Americans that boiled over that day,’ referencing the COVID-19 lockdowns, vaccine mandates and the 2020 election as a base for having to ‘sort all of this out.’ ‘If you tell people they cannot scream that is when they tear things down,’ Ramaswamy said. ‘And I think that's exactly what happened on January 6.’” [USA Today, 7/22/23]
Ramaswamy Called The Sentences For Members Of The Proud Boys Involved In The January 6 Attack On The U.S. Capitol “Wrong.” According to the New York Times, “At least two Republican presidential candidates are criticizing as excessive recent prison sentences for members of the far-right Proud Boys involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, casting the defendants as victims of an unfair justice system rather than leading participants in an effort to disrupt the peaceful transition of power. Several sentences have been handed down in the past two weeks: 22 years for Enrique Tarrio, 15 and 17 years for Zachary Rehl and Joseph Biggs, and 10 and 18 years for Dominic Pezzola and Ethan Nordean. The Proud Boys were behind major breaches of the Capitol on Jan. 6, and the men who received the sentences played leading roles in planning the attack, executing it or both. […] Another candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, declared on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday in response to the sentences, ‘This is wrong & it’s sad that I’m the only candidate with the spine to say it.’ In a statement on Wednesday, he vowed to pardon all ‘peaceful, nonviolent’ Jan. 6 participants and said, ‘America now has a two-tiered justice system: Antifa and B.L.M. rioters roam free while peaceful Jan. 6 protesters are imprisoned without bail.’” [New York Times, 9/7/23]
Ramaswamy Said He Would Pardon All “Peaceful, Nonviolent” January 6 Protestors. According to the New York Times, “Another candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, declared on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday in response to the sentences, ‘This is wrong & it’s sad that I’m the only candidate with the spine to say it.’ In a statement on Wednesday, he vowed to pardon all ‘peaceful, nonviolent’ Jan. 6 participants and said, ‘America now has a two-tiered justice system: Antifa and B.L.M. rioters roam free while peaceful Jan. 6 protesters are imprisoned without bail.’” [New York Times, 9/7/23]
Ramaswamy Said He Would Have Demanded Congress Change Election Laws Before Certifying The 2020 Election. According to ABC News, “In a contentious interview on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ Sunday, Ramaswamy echoed earlier statements he made to the National Review by saying Pence missed ‘a historic opportunity … to unite this county’ when he certified the results of the 2020 presidential election. During his appearance on the show, he also said that if he had been in Pence’s position, he would have implemented his voting reform proposal by Jan. 7, the day Pence certified Biden's win, before ‘declaring a reelection campaign’ and certifying results. His proposal: single-day voting via paper ballots requiring a government-issued I.D. ‘matching the voter file.’” [ABC News, 8/28/23]