Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's comparison of Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. as a "modern-day grand wizard" of the Ku Klux Klan served to "reveal the depths of his own dishonesty," the Congressional Black Caucus said Tuesday.
"His words are not merely the ramblings of a deeply unserious person — this is part of a dark and calculated attempt to obfuscate the truth about racism in America," the Black Caucus said in a statement. "The majority of reasonable-minded Americans understand that the Ku Klux Klan was, and is today, a group that wishes to reestablish white supremacy through intimidation and violence. We tragically saw the consequence of that ideology a few days ago in Jacksonville, Florida."
Ramaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants, made the remark when he was asked during a campaign stop in Iowa if he's concerned that liberals are painting him as a "white supremacist," including progressive author Ibram X. Kendi in the comment. Pressley and Kendi are Black.
Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old entrepreneur from Ohio, said his comments were intended to provoke an "honest and open discussion."
"Vivek Ramaswamy understands that there is an appetite for racism and bigotry within the base of the extreme MAGA Republican party and he is opting to shamelessly carry the water of white supremacy for his own political gain," the Congressional Black Caucus added in its statement.
Ramaswamy also on Friday accused Pressley, the first Black woman elected to represent Massachusetts in Congress, of racism for her comments in 2019 saying that Democrats "don't need any more brown faces that don't want to be a brown voice."
Pressley's spokesperson later said she was making a point that "diversity at the table doesn't matter if there's not real diversity in policy."
Ramaswamy is one of a handful of people of color seeking the GOP presidential nomination, and has said that if he wins the nomination, he will "bring along voters of diverse shades of melanin in droves" to win the general election," but the Black Caucus urged the Republican Party as a whole to condemn him for his comments.
"The Republican Party cannot be silent. If this does not speak to their values, leaders within the party have an obligation to say so," the Black Caucus said. "This rhetoric is beyond dangerous and deserves nothing short of full condemnation."
Over the weekend, Pressley called Ramaswamy's comments a "verbal assault" and said the attack was "shameful" and "dangerous."
"It is not that long ago that we were besieged by images of white supremacists carrying tiki torches in Charlottesville," she said in an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton. "It was not that long ago that a white supremacist mob seized the Capitol, waving Confederate flags and erecting nooses on the West Lawn of the Capitol."
Pressley further added that her ancestors and living family members "have been brutalized, lynched, raped by the Ku Klux Klan."
Just one Republican candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, has spoken out about Ramaswamy's comments, accusing him in a CNN interview of "not really looking at real life in America."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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