Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy made the rounds on the Sunday morning talk shows this week. And his appearances delivered some truly wild moments.
In a pair of interviews with Dana Bash on CNN and Chuck Todd on NBC, the businessman — whose upstart candidacy made him the target of his rivals at Wednesday night’s debate — confronted both hosts, made outrageous claims, and produced a series of bizarre moments which dominated the headlines Sunday morning.
Here are the highlights:
1. Bash Battles Ramaswamy for Comparing Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) to a “Modern Grand Wizard” of the KKK
The CNN anchor pressed Ramaswamy about comments at a recent event — in which he claimed Pressley spoke “the words of the modern grand wizards of the modern KKK” back in 2019 when she said, “We don’t want any more black faces that don’t want to be a black voice. We don’t want any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice.”
“How, in any way, are the views you’re talking about comparable to the views and atrocities committed by the KKK?” Bash asked.
“What I said is the grand wizards of the KKK would be proud of what they would hear her say,” Ramaswamy replied. “Because there’s nothing more racist than saying that your skin color predicts something about the content of your viewpoints or your ideas.”
“You didn’t just say they would be proud,” Bash said, firing back.. “You said these are the words of the modern grand wizards of the modern KKK.”
2. Ramaswamy Confronted With Comment About White Supremacists Being as Rare a Unicorns
There was another recent comment about race on which Bash confronted Ramaswamy. The CNN anchor played a remark from Friday in which Ramaswamy said, “I’m sure the bogeyman white supremacist exists somewhere in America, but I’ve never met him. Never seen one. Never met one in my life. Maybe I’ll meet a unicorn sooner. And maybe those exist too.”