Although his White House bid has failed to garner widespread support among likely GOP primary voters, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has built a strong reputation as a skilled communicator during his months on the campaign trail.
As such, he has repeatedly made quick work of reporters and others seeking to corner him with a loaded question.
That ability was on display this week when a reporter for the Washington Post pressured him to “condemn White supremacy and White nationalism.”
Instead of delivering leftist-approved talking points or stumbling over his response, Ramaswamy turned the tables on the reporter.
“I’m not going to recite some catechism for you,” he declared. “I’m against vicious racial discrimination in this country, so I’m not pledging allegiance to your new religion of modern wokeism, which absolutely fits the test.”
Maintaining the religion analogy, he asserted that he would not “bend the knee to your religion,” adding: “I’m sorry, I’m not asking you to bend the knee to mine and I’m not going to bend the knee to yours.”
He did rephrase — and then answer — the question in a way to address what he believed was the salient point.
“Do I condemn vicious racial discrimination?” he asked. “Yes, I do. Am I going to play your silly game of gotcha? No, I’m not.”
He concluded that such questions exemplify “why people have lost trust” in the media, going on to predict how news outlets would interpret his answer.
“I know you’re going to print the headline tomorrow,” Ramaswamy added. “I already know this. We already know how your game works. ‘Vivek Ramaswamy refuses to condemn racism,’ because you asked a stupid question. The reality is, I condemn vicious racial discrimination in this country, but the kind of vicious and systemic racism we see today is discrimination on the basis of race in a very different direction.”
NEW: Vivek Ramaswamy absolutely obliterates woke reporter who tries asking him a 'gotcha' question about condemning white supremacy.
Amazing 🔥🔥🔥
“I'm not gonna recite some catechism for you. I'm against vicious racial discrimination in this country, so I'm not pledging… pic.twitter.com/QBEMaSm7At
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 3, 2024
He referenced meetings with Americans “of every shade of melanin” who are all “hungry for reviving unity in this country,” pointing a finger at the media for making that pursuit all but impossible.
“Shame on you,” he said. “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.”
