2024 presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy stood by calling Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) "a modern grand wizard of the KKK."
Ramaswamy was pressed about a comment he made about Pressley Friday during a campaign stop with voters in Iowa during an appearance Sunday on CNN's State of the Union with host Dana Bash.
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Bash challenged Ramaswamy on calling Pressley "a modern grand wizard of the KKK," after asking what his reaction was to the Jacksonville shooting that occurred on Saturday, then pressing him on how he believed his comments denying having experienced white supremacy would be seen by the victim's families.
"You know, I’m sure, the KKK was responsible for more than a century worth of horrific lynchings, rapes, murders of black people. How in any way are the views you’re talking about comparable to the views and atrocities committed by the KKK?" Bash asked.
"I think it is the same spirit to say that I can look at you and, based on just your skin color, that I know something about the content of your character, that I know something about the content of the viewpoints that you’re allowed to express," Ramaswamy responded. "For Ayanna Pressley to tell me that because of my skin color, I can’t express my views, that is wrong, that is divisive. It is driving hate in this country. This is dividing our country to a breaking point."
"Let’s be intellectually honest and get to the heart of what this debate ought to be about," Ramaswamy said. "There is a world view that says that the remedy to past discrimination and present discrimination. That if you’re black or brown, you have to have a particular point of view. That’s from Ibram X Kendi and Ayanna Pressley, the people I quoted in my speech."
In the following back-and-forth, Ramaswamy stood by his comment, while Bash claimed that the comments weren't conducive to an "open and honest discussion." The CNN host asked if he believed the comment "crossed a line," to which Ramaswamy said no.
The 2024 Republican presidential candidate made the comment on Friday while in Iowa.
"Ayanna Pressley, she's in the Congress today. She's a member of 'the squad.' Her words, not mine: 'We don't want any more black faces that don't want to be a black voice. We don't want any more brown faces that don't want to be a brown voice,'" Ramaswamy said, according to NBC News, then going on to quote Ibram X. Kendi's "How To Be Anti-racist."
“These are the words of the modern grand wizards of the modern KKK,” he declared.
Pressley's team bashed Ramaswamy's Friday statement as having crossed a line in a fundraising pitch shortly after.
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“We typically don’t engage in these bad-faith attacks, but yesterday a line was crossed. A GOP candidate referred to Ayanna as ‘a modern grand wizard of the KKK’ because she speaks out against racial injustice,” Pressley's team said in a statement to Politico. “This is backwards and harmful, but that is the point.”
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Pressley.