Ramswamy defends likening Rep. Pressley’s comments to grand wizard of modern KKK

Multimillionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is defending his likening of racially-tinged remarks by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and others to that of “wizards of the grand KKK.”

On Friday in Iowa, Ramaswamy claimed there’s a “new Neo racism on the left” — citing as an example “the Squad” member’s 2019 reported remark that “we don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice.”

“I think it is the same spirit to say that I can look at you and based on just your skin color that I know something about the content of your character — that I know something about the content of the viewpoints you’re allowed to express,” Ramaswamy told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

“For Ayanna Presley to tell me that, that because of my skin color, I can express my views — that is wrong.”

Pressley’s team called out Ramasamy’s remarks in a fundraising pitch.

“We typically don’t engage in these bad-faith attacks but yesterday a line was crossed. A GOP candidate referred to Ayanna as ‘a modern grand wizard of the KKK’ because she speaks out against racial injustice,” her team said in the pitch, according to Politico. “This is backwards and harmful, but that is the point.”

Ramaswamy made the comparison Friday when asked about his experience as a person of color with racism in the US.

He pointed to both the 2019 comment from Pressley — and journalist Kara Swisher recently calling him “RamaSMARMY” on social media.

“I think it’s offensive. And I think the fact that we’re taught to see one another on the basis of our genetic attributes is something that would make the old wizards of the grand KKK proud,” Ramaswamy said in Iowa, The Messenger reported.

CNN anchor Dana Bash grilled Ramaswamy on the comparison, juxtaposing Pressley’s nonviolent comment with the violence of the KKK, infamous for hideous crimes including rape and lynching.

The 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur stood by his comments, countering that there is a mindset among some politicos “that if you’re black or brown, you have to have a particular point of view.”

“We all agree that the KKK was an awful organization that has a toxic stain in our national history. So given that we can start from that point of agreement, now that allows us to say, who actually sounds more like that organization today?” he continued. “The people who are calling for more racial discrimination on the basis of skin color.”

Earlier in the interview, Bash asked Ramaswamy about the Saturday shooting in Jacksonville, Fla., where a white gunman gunned down three black individuals at a Dollar General store before killing himself.

Law enforcement described the deadly rampage as racially motivated.

“It is such a tragedy and my heart goes out to those families. This should not be happening in the United States of America and it is wrong,” Ramaswamy said.

“We need to have to have the courage in this country to bring back a practice of putting back psychiatrically ill people who pose a risk to their communities into psychiatric institutions.”

During a back-and-forth with Bash about the role of race in the shooting, Ramaswamy lamented the “racialized culture in this country.” which he pinned on the media and politicians.

“I’ve never once encountered that yet,” he said, when asked about his experience with white supremacy. “I’m sure the boogeyman white supremacist exists somewhere in America, I’ve just never met it.”

Ramaswamy further contended “most of that modern racism has come from the modern left.”

His debate performance Wednesday night, in which multiple candidates on stage dogpiled on him, garnered significant buzz.

Ramasamy is currently running in third place with 7% support in the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate of the 2024 GOP contest.