Failed 2024 Republican primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy praised Ann Coulter for having the “guts” to make racist remarks directly to his face on his podcast this week. Ms Coulter, a conservative firebrand with a history of openly racist remarks, appeared on the businessman’s podcast, “Truth”, on Wednesday for an episode titled, “The N Word: Nationalism.”
Mr Ramaswamy welcomed Ms Coulter by telling her that he is a fan. She replied that he is “bright and articulate” and notes that she wouldn’t be “allowed” to say that to him, if he was “an American Black.” She goes on to say that, even though she agreed with him more than most other GOP primary candidates, she would not have voted for him to be president because he is Indian. She said: “I agreed with many, many things you said during your campaign, in fact probably more than most other candidates when you were running for president. But I still would not have voted for you because you’re an Indian.”
She then claimed that the “core national identity” in the United States is a “WASP” – a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. “[That] doesn’t mean we can’t take anyone else in—a Sri Lankan, a Japanese, or an Indian—but the core around which the nation’s values are formed is the WASP”, she continued.
Mr Ramaswamy was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Indian immigrant parents and is an American citizen. He would not have been eligible to run for president if he was not born in America. Additionally, the Constitution of India does not permit holding of dual nationality by Indian nationals.
Mr Ramaswamy did not balk at Ms Coulter’s remarks, and the pair discussed their shared disdain of dual citizenship. He pushed back on Ms Coulter’s idea that Americans whose families have been in the US for centuries were “more American”. He argued that the children of immigrants could be more loyal to the US than a “WASP, seventh generation descendent of some rich guy on the Upper East Side in Brooklyn that pretends to hate this country because it’s the cool thing to do”.
Following the podcast, Mr Ramaswamy posted on X that he agreed with Ms Coulter on dual citizenship but disagreed with her reasoning on why she wouldn’t vote for him. However he added that he admired her “guts” for telling him. “Ann Coulter told me flat-out to my face that she couldn’t vote for me ‘because you’re an Indian,’ even though she agreed with me more than most other candidates,” he wrote. “I disagree with her but respect she had the guts to speak her mind. It was a riveting hour.”
.@AnnCoulter told me flat-out to my face that she couldn’t vote for me “because you’re an Indian,” even though she agreed with me more than most other candidates. I disagree with her but respect she had the guts to speak her mind. It was a riveting hour. The TRUTH podcast is back https://t.co/neVjKSs6e9
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 8, 2024
Congressman Ted Lieu, whose family immigrated to the US from Taiwan, said that he wasn’t surprised by Ms Coulter’s racism but expressed sympathy for Mr Ramaswamy’s response. “I wasn’t surprised that Ann Coulter made a racist statement about Vivek,” he posted on X. “What surprised me is the weakness and lack of self respect of @VivekGRamaswamy. He’s actually promoting this episode and praising the person who spewed raw racism to his face. I feel sorry for Vivek.”
(Source: The Independent)
