Republican 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy offered a mixed defense of former President Donald Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, saying Mr. Trump’s “bad judgment” that day should not be treated as a crime.
Last week, Mr. Trump indicated he could be facing criminal charges in connection to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Mr. Ramaswamy was asked for his perspective on the potential criminal case against Mr. Trump and why he hasn’t used the moment to attack his primary opponent.
“I’ve been consistent all along that I would have made different judgments than Donald Trump made,” he said. “That is why I’m running in this race for the presidency, the same race that he’s in, because I would have made different and, I believe, better judgments for the country.”
“But a bad judgment is not the same thing as a crime and when we conflate the two that sets a dangerous precedent for this country. I don’t want to see us become some banana republic where the party in power uses police force to arrest its political opponents,” he continued.
Ahead of the breach at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Trump had challenged the results of the 2020 election and called on supporters to rally in Washington D.C. to protest the results and urge lawmakers not to certify the results from several close state contests. As Mr. Trump addressed a crowd of supporters at the Ellipse, thousands of people began moving over to the Capitol, and hundreds of people entered the building and clashed with Capitol Police, disrupting congressional proceedings.
Ramaswamy’s Stance on Jan. 6
Mr. Ramaswamy’s comments to Fox News join a mix of remarks he has offered about Mr. Trump and about the events that took place at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
In a Jan. 12, 2021, post on his Twitter account, Mr. Ramaswamy said, “What Trump did last week was wrong. Downright abhorrent. Plain and simple.”
By Ryan Morgan
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