Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday attacked a journalist who asked him if he condemned “white supremacy and white nationalism.”
The 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur educated the journalist on his position that white supremacy is not to blame. However, in contrast, “affirmative action” causes many racial conflicts in the country, he explained.
“Of course I condemn any form of cruel racial discrimination in this country. But I think the presumption of your question is fundamentally based on a falsehood that really is the main form of racial discrimination that we see in this country today,” he stated. told the Washington Post reporter during a campaign event in Scott County, Iowa.
“Institutionalized racism is institutionalized racial discrimination that we see does not arise from somehow discriminating against people based on some attempt at white supremacy. It is based on affirmative action. It is based on discriminating against people based on the color of their skin in a way that is currently institutionalized,” Ramaswamy added.
Ramaswamy acknowledged that “vicious forms of discrimination against black and brown people” existed in the United States in the past, but chastised journalists for “looking in the rearview mirror… to ask a question today that is so far removed from reality.” ”. What is the reality”.
Ramaswamy received an endorsement Tuesday from former Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King. REUTERS
“I think, frankly, questions and framing like that have caused the American public to lose all trust in the mainstream media,” he continued.
Then the Washington Post journalist intervened and told the Republican candidate: “You didn’t say you condemned white supremacy.”
To which Ramaswamy responded: “I am not going to recite any catechism to you,” reiterating that he is “against the cruel racial discrimination in this country.”
“I’m not pledging allegiance to your new modern woke religion,” the increasingly agitated White House hopeful continued, accusing the journalist of asking a “stupid question.”
“Do you want to know the best way to end discrimination based on race? Stop discriminating based on race; do it and we will move this country forward,” Ramaswamy argued.
Ramaswamy is in fourth place in the Iowa primary, according to an average of polls from RealClearPolitics. REUTERS
The reporter’s question arose from Tuesday’s controversial endorsement of Ramaswamy by former Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King.
King, who served 18 years in the House of Representatives, lost his primary race to Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra in June 2020 after being stripped of his committee assignments for comments that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle found offensive and racist. .
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization: how did that language become offensive?” King, 74, told the New York Times in January 2019.
He later issued a statement saying he rejected “those labels and the evil ideology they define.”
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn