Vivek Ramaswamy suggested after the first Republican presidential debate that the 2020 election results should have been overturned in the name of "national unity."
The 38-year-old entrepreneur took center stage at the Milwaukee event on the strength of a recent polling surge, but he was not asked, as others were, whether Mike Pence had done the right thing on Jan. 6, 2021, by refusing Donald Trump's order to delay or reject the Electoral College vote count.
But the National Review caught up with him afterward and posed the question directly.
"I would have done it very differently," Ramaswamy told the publication.
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The GOP candidate then launched into a lengthy and somewhat convoluted explanation that appeared to suggest Congress should have changed the rules between Election Day and the constitutionally mandated Jan. 6 deadline for certifying the Electoral College count in such a way that likely would have kept Trump in office.
"So I think that there was a historic opportunity that was missed to settle a score in this country to say that we’re actually going to have a national compromise on this," Ramaswamy said.
"Single-day voting on Election Day as a federal holiday, which I think Congress should have acted in that window between November and January to say. Paper ballots, government-issued ID, and if that’s the case, then we’re not going to complain about stolen elections, and if I were there, I would have declared on Jan. 7, saying now I’m going to win in a free and fair election."
Ramaswamy then offered some of Trump's conspiracy theories around his election loss to justify changing the rules going forward.
"Unlike what we saw with big tech and others stealing the election last time around, fix the process," Ramaswamy said. "This time around, we get it right, and it was a missed opportunity to deliver national unity. That’s what I would have done, but that’s what I’m going to be able to do as president, is unite this country."
