On Saturday, in an interview with CNN’s Jim Acosta, GOP Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy engaged in a tense exchange regarding former President Trump’s reference to the January 6 rioters as “hostages.”
Acosta asked for Ramaswamy’s opinion on Trump’s usage of the word “hostages” in relation to those who had been apprehended at the Texas rally earlier this year.
“Do you agree with Trump that January 6 prisoners are hostages?” Acosta asked.
Ramaswamy asserted that those who peacefully protested on January 6 should not be incarcerated, underscoring the disparate application of justice in the nation.
“I think many peaceful protesters on January 6 should absolutely not be in prison,” said Ramaswamy, adding, “We have a dual standard of justice in this country. One standard applied, Antifa and BLM rioters for the prior two years.”
When Acosta questioned Trump’s use of the word “hostages,” he noted that it was an irresponsible choice given the current tensions in Israel. In response, Ramaswamy criticized media accountability and highlighted CNN’s management of the Russia collusion claims and Hunter Biden laptop story.
“I mean Jim, let me just be really clear about what’s irresponsible as it relates to coverage of Donald Trump,” said Trump.
“And I think that your network and others like you owe some accountability here from the Russia collusion hoax that never was, to the Hunter Biden laptop story that was actually real before people before the election were told that it was false. So I think that the real accountability here belongs to the media. Speak the truth, and admit accountability when you are wrong,” said Ramaswamy.
Acosta posed the question of whether Ramaswamy agreed with the description of the January 6 protesters as hostages, to which he responded by affirming his belief that their constitutional rights had been infringed upon. He further stated that many were being prosecuted for holding differing political views, a violation of their constitutional rights.
“In many cases, those January 6 protesters were denied constitutional rights. Well, I think I agree with the spirit of it. The spirit of it is those people, many of them, have been denied their constitutional rights, and many of them are peaceful,” said Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy reaffirmed his dedication to justice, expressing that, should he be granted the authority, he would grant amnesty to those who peacefully participated in the January 6 protests.
“I don’t think that many of those prosecutions are just. My view is, if you’re using one standard of political prosecution for somebody because they have political views different from your own, that’s not justice. That is injustice. And that’s why I’ve said that anybody who is a peaceful protester on January 6 for those peaceful protesters, they will earn a pardon from me on day one. And I will stand by that, Jim.
In an X/Twitter post, Ramaswamy wrote, “This is exactly what the MSM does: obsess over some irrelevant detail about a random Trump comment, while totally abdicating their own responsibility for systematically lying to the public for the last 5 years. The lack of self-awareness is astounding.”
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