During a chaotic interview on CNN's "State of the Union," Republican presidential nomination contender Vivek Ramaswamy accused host Dana Bash of not being "intellectually honest" as she grilled him for equating Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) — who is Black — with "the modern grand wizards of the modern KKK."
Asking if he wanted to walk back his inflammatory comments, he refused and what ensued was a back and forth where he refused to stop talking as she attempted to follow up on what he was saying.
At one point, she asked, '"That is a debate that is based on nonviolent discussion which you just said, she's using rhetoric. There is — that's one thing, and another thing is to say that she represents and she is a modern version of a KKK, which as you know, was dedicated to the subjugation and violence against black people."
"How on earth is she a modern Grand Wizard of that kind of an organization?" she pressed.
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"Dana, let's be honest — let's be intellectually honest and get to the heart of what this debate ought to be about," he fired back. "There is a world view that says that the remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination; that if you're black or brown, you have to have a particular point of view. That's from Ayanna Pressley and Ibram X. Kendi, the people I quoted in my speech."
"But regardless when you accuse her of being a Grand Wizard of KKK? Can you have that intellectually honest discussion with that kind of rhetoric?" Bash managed to get in.
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"Yes, I can, Dana, because the point I'm highlighting is that even when the people even in good spirit -- we all agree the KKK was a horrible organization that is a toxic stain on our nation's history. So given that we start from that point of agreement, now who actually sounds like that organization today? The people who are calling for more racial discrimination on the basis of color?"
Watch below or at the link.
CNN 08 27 2023 09 04 49youtu.be
