Longshot Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy blamed “pervasive censorship” for the events at the Capitol on January 6th.
Ramaswamy made the comments during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson during the 2023 Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines.
“What caused January 6 is pervasive censorship in this country in the lead up to January 6,” Ramaswamy said. “You tell people in this country they cannot speak. That is when they scream. You tell people they cannot scream. That is when they tear things down.”
“Until we look ourselves in the mirror and admit truth on that, we will not move forward as a country,” he added.
His comments were in stark contrast to former Vice President Mike Pence, who was also at the event and spoke with Carlson.
“All I know for sure having lived through it at the Capitol is that it was a tragic day,” Pence said. “I’ve never used the word insurrection, Tucker, over the past two years, but it was a riot that took place at the Capitol that day.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dodged similar questions about January 6th at a campaign event in New Hampshire last week.
“I wasn’t anywhere near Washington that day. I have nothing to do with what happened that day,” DeSantis said. “Obviously, I didn’t enjoy seeing, you know, what happened. But we gotta go forward on this stuff. We cannot be looking backwards and be mired in the past.”
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has blamed former President Trump directly, blasted DeSantis’s comments.
“Was he alive that day? Did he see what was going on? I mean, that’s one of the most ridiculous answers I’ve heard in this race so far,” Christie said.
Trump did not attend the summit, instead speaking at the Turning Point Action Conference in Palm Beach, Florida.
