GOP presidential hopeful says Covid policies — not Trump — caused Jan. 6 riots

Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy told Tucker Carlson on Friday that it wasn't Trump, but Covid policies and a lack of free expression that led to the attempted insurrection in January 2021.

Carlson, interviewing various GOP candidates in Iowa Friday, asked Ramaswamy about the insurrection.

"Another thing you can't say is that maybe January 6th, while appalling on one level, wasn't an insurrection," Carlson said.

Ramaswamy began by saying he hasn't talked about this particular issue on the campaign trail, noting, "You want to know what caused January 6th? There's such a temptation to say that there's one man whose name is unspeakable... you want to know what cause January 6th? It's pervasive censorship in this country in the lead-up to January 6th."

He explained:

"You tell people in this country they cannot speak, and that is when they scream. You tell people that they cannot scream, that is when they tear things down... we were told that you could not question where the virus came from, when we all know it came from a lab in Wuhan, which now they admit. We were told that you could not send a private message to someone on the eve of an election that Hunter Biden's laptop story was actually a true story worth considering before an election."

Ramaswamy added:

"You were told you had to be locked down, had to take a vaccine that was mandated and forced down your throat. You had to be locked down in your home while antifa and BLM burn down the streets of this country... that's what caused January 6th, is a cycle of censorship in this country."

Ramaswamy didn't mention that Donald Trump was president during the run-up to Jan. 6, 2021.