(NewsNation) — Vivek Ramaswamy is doubling down on a remark he made comparing comments from Black Rep. Ayanna Pressley to those of “modern grand wizards” in the Ku Klux Klan.
The Republican presidential candidate created a firestorm when he made the comment at a campaign event Friday in response to remarks by Pressley in 2019 in which she said: “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.”
Defending his comments Monday on “CUOMO,” Ramaswamy said “that’s just the truth of the substance of what she said.”
“At points in our history we have had people who have talked about Black faces and brown faces to shut up, sit down and do as they’re told. You know who did that? Yes, the grand wizard of the KKK,” Ramaswamy said.
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Ramaswamy maintained that his assessment of Pressley’s comments should spark an “open and honest” discussion and blamed what he called the “modern left” for racism that he has encountered in the U.S.
“What I said is the grand wizards of the KKK would be proud of what they would hear her say because there’s nothing more racist than saying that your skin color predicts something about the content of your viewpoints or your ideas,” Ramaswamy told anchor Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
Pressley hit back at Ramaswamy’s comparison on MSNBC’s “Politics Nation” over the weekend, calling “the verbal assault” from the presidential hopeful “shameful” and “dangerous.”
On Monday, Ramaswamy criticized what he called a double standard for the “left-wing media” being fine with Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries comparing former President Donald Trump to KKK leaders.
Jeffries, now the House minority leader, in 2019 called Trump the “grand wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.” He, too, stood by the characterization when pressed by news outlets.
Ramaswamy rejected the argument from NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo that he was “doing the same thing” as Jeffries.
“Not all statements are equal,” Ramaswamy said.
The 38-year-old entrepreneur launched his long shot bid for the Republican nomination in February and has since surged in the polls to the point of earning a spot center stage in last week’s first primary debate.
Ramaswamy was a target in some of the night’s most contentious exchanges, taking heat from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence.
“I feel good about it,” Ramaswamy said of the increased scrutiny of himself, his viewpoints and his past. “If I’m going to run to sit across the table from Xi Jinping, I better be willing to sit across the table from anybody here at home. That goes for media and my fellow competitors on that debate stage.”
Unlike some competitors who are distancing themselves from Trump, Ramaswamy at the debate called Trump the best president of the 21st century. He said earlier this year he can advance an “America First” agenda better than Trump did in a quest to restore the nation’s “missing national character.”
“My philosophy is no state left behind, no city left behind, no American left behind. I haven’t talked to (Ukraine President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy, but I have talked to victims in Maui,” Ramaswamy said, an apparent swipe at other candidates, including Christie and Pence, who have visited Ukraine. “I think this is a big part of how I’m building a multiethnic, working-class coalition that I think can deliver a landslide like Reagan did in 1980.”
The Hill contributed to this report.