On Wednesday, Vivek Ramaswamy absolutely destroyed a Washington Post reporter who thought she was asking a gotcha question by asking him to condemn white supremacy.
“I’m not — I’m not going to recite some catechism for you,” Ramaswamy told her. “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.”
“I’m not going to bend the knee to your religion. 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. But do I condemn vicious racial discrimination? Yes, I do. Am I going to play your silly game of ‘Gotcha’? No, I’m not. And frankly, this is why people have lost trust [in the media].”
Ramaswamy continued, “And I know you’re going to go print the headline tomorrow. 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 systematic racism we see today is discrimination on the basis of race in a very different direction.”
WAPO reporter doubles down: You didn’t say that you condemn white supremacy though.
She immediately regrets it.@VivekGRamaswamy isn’t going to play the game. pic.twitter.com/2NHshriVZa
— Chris Carapezza (@Chris_Carapezza) January 3, 2024
Lo and behold, the reporter, Meryl Kornfield, pretty much did exactly what he told her she would. While it doesn’t appear that she ever wrote an article on the exchange, she did claim, as Ramaswamy said she would, that he “refused to condemn white supremacy” in a post on X/Twitter.
“I asked Vivek if he condemned white supremacy. Vivek said to ‘stop picking on this farce of some figment that exists at some infinitesimally small fringe.’ He said he condemns ‘vicious racial discrimination’ but would not ‘bend the knee’ and condemn white supremacy,’” she wrote.
I asked Vivek if he condemned white supremacy. Vivek said to “stop picking on this farce of some figment that exists at some infinitesimally small fringe.” He said he condemns “vicious racial discrimination” but would not “bend the knee” and condemn white supremacy. https://t.co/mwNTKGKF1w
— Meryl Kornfield (@MerylKornfield) January 3, 2024
Kornfield had every reason in the world to prove Vivek wrong and report on their exchange honestly and fairly, but she didn’t, thus proving his claims about the media to be absolutely true.
Related: Vivek Took a Page Out of the Democrats’ Playbook
“You people have been responsible for dividing this country to a breaking point, creating a projection of national division,” Ramaswamy told Kornfield Wednesday. “I meet people from the South Side of Chicago to meetings like this one — of every shade of melanin […] man to woman, doesn’t make a difference — who are hungry for reviving unity in this country. And you, with your catechism that you try to get politicians to — whatever fake headline you’re going to print on the basis of this conversation tomorrow — that’s what’s dividing this country to a breaking point. Shame on you. 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.”