Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy likes to act as though he thinks former President Donald Trump is just the best thing since sliced bread.
But he has some problematic comments from the not-so-distant past that raise questions about how long he has viewed the 45th president as the greatest occupant of the White House of the 21st Century.
And MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan actually did a good job grilling Ramaswamy on his flip-flop by confronting him about a 2021 tweet that said Trump’s actions were “abhorrent.”
“You say he behaved in downright abhorrent behavior that makes him a danger to democracy,” the host noted before asking, “Tell me what he did that was downright abhorrent.”
Ramaswamy responded, “Let’s actually be really fair to your audience, so on Jan. 10, 2021, there about, days after that incident, I wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal arguing that censorship was the real cause of what happened on Jan. 6.”
“When pressed on was that condoning what Trump did, my answer was no. There’s a difference between a bad judgment and a crime,” he added.
Watch the video below:
"I want you to answer my question. Three times I've asked it. What did Donald Trump do that was 'downright abhorrent'? It's your words."
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) September 6, 2023
I asked @VivekGRamaswamy about his old tweets & writings, him criticizing Trump, and it got a little heated.
Watch:pic.twitter.com/3E13GBYlJ0
However, Hasan called Ramaswamy out for dodging the question and asked, “What did Donald Trump do in your view that was downright abhorrent?”
Ramaswamy insisted if he was in Trump’s place, he would have declared his re-election bid on Jan. 7, 2021. He then accused Hasan of “mixing two different quotes.”
“What did I think was reprehensible about what happened that day? I think that the way a true leader should have handled that situation should have been to actually say, ‘This is me running for re-election.’ Not actually litigating what is already past and behind us,” he added.
When Hasan again pressed him to answer the question, he insisted the host was mixing several different quotes. At that point, the journalist showed Ramaswamy’s tweet from Jan. 12, 2021, which read, “What Trump did last week was wrong. Plain and simple. I’ve said it before and did so in my piece.”
Vivek Ramaswamy was asked 4 times about this tweet and what he meant when he called Trump's actions "Downright abhorrent"
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 7, 2023
He repeatedly refused to answer the question https://t.co/PjKrUSpDAn pic.twitter.com/UEmqcnKyFO
Finally, Ramaswamy said Trump fell short because he failed to unite the country. However, he did not specifically say what Trump did the week of Jan. 6 that was “abhorrent.”
It would have been one thing if he simply said he changed his mind as the emotions from the day had cooled. Yet instead, Ramaswamy insisted the quote Hasan was pressing him on was some amalgamation of his comments and not his actual words — when they were.
His refusal to address the tweet and his comments sincerely blows apart — or at least it should — his facade that Trump is just the best in his opinion. If he really does not believe the tweet now, he could have said that. But by acting as though those were not his real words, it suggests his fawning praise of the former president is not genuine and is instead a ploy to keep the MAGA-wing happy.
It is rare for MSNBC to produce good video clips involving Republicans. But in less than three minutes, Hasan — using the candidate’s words verbatim — exposed Ramaswamy as either a fraud or someone who just says whatever he thinks is popular at the moment with the group he is appealing to, neither of which is a good quality for someone who builds his campaign on the claim of being a truth-teller.