Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Sunday that an alleged scheme by Donald Trump and his allies to keep the former president in office after he lost the 2020 election using fake electors was one decision in a series of “bad judgments.”
Ramaswamy’s comments came during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, who asked the political newcomer if it was wrong for Trump allies to create slates of fake electors in states that the former president lost.
The presidential candidate replied that if he had been president, he would have “never let it get to that place.”
“I think that there were a number of bad judgments that were made,” Ramaswamy said. “Frankly, if I were the U.S. president, I would have never let it get to that place. We had systematic suppression of information. We had systematic COVID mandates, which I think actually created a lot of the frustration that led up to January 6 that was pent up.”
Stephanopoulos pressed again, asking if it was wrong to push the fake electors plot.
Ramaswamy said he “would not have nominated phony slates of electors.” Asked if it was wrong to “encourage the mob to storm the Capitol” on January 6, 2021, he said he would not have done it.
“I disagree with that characterization, because I’ve read the transcript very carefully,” he said. “Peaceful protest is what Donald Trump encouraged. Is that what I would have done that day under those circumstances? No, but I do think that that’s different from a crime and so I disagree with a lot of what he did that day.”
“But that is still different from saying that he should be prosecuted for it, which I think sets a dangerous precedent of First Amendment,” he added.
Trump is facing four federal felony counts as a result of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He’s facing another 13 felony charges in a Fulton County, Ga., case centered on his alleged efforts to overturn the election.
Trump is also facing another 42 felony counts stemming from Smith’s separate investigation into the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. Before that, Trump was indicted in Manhattan on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush-money payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.
Forbes calculated that Trump faces a maximum of 717 years in jail across all four cases. However, Trump would be unlikely to receive maximum sentences if convicted.
Ramaswamy has emerged as one of Trump’s most ardent defenders. During an appearance on Fox News last month after Trump’s fourth indictment in four months, he told Neil Cavuto that he believes the prosecutions against Trump are “wrong.”
When Cavuto pushed back, questioning whether 91 criminal charges against Trump across four cases could all possibly be politicized, Ramaswamy remained undeterred. “I think, Neil, just because the government has brought a case — if we’re going to be a culture that now starts to say there must be something wrong if the government has charged 91 counts, I think that’s a people of sheep. And when the people behave like sheep, that breeds a government of wolves.”
Trump even offered a “thank you” to Ramaswamy last month after the 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur came to his defense during the first Republican debate, which the former president chose not to attend.
“This answer gave Vivek Ramaswamy a big WIN in the debate because of a thing called TRUTH. Thank you Vivek!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social early Thursday morning.
The post included a clip of Ramaswamy calling Trump the “best president of the 21st Century.”