Dana Bash Confronts Vivek Ramaswamy for Comparing Black Lawmaker to KKK

CNN host Dana Bash confronted Republican 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on his comparison between a Black Democratic lawmaker and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) on Sunday.

Ramaswamy is facing criticism for calling Representative Ayanna Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat, as well as author Ibram X. Kendi the "modern grand wizards of the modern KKK" during a campaign stop in Iowa earlier this week over Pressley's 2019 remarks that Congress does not need "any more Black faces that don't want to be a Black voice."

"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,'" he said in Iowa, NBC News reported on Friday.

Pressley made history as the first Black woman elected to Boston's city council and to Massachusetts' congressional delegation in 2018.

During his campaign stop, Ramaswamy also criticized Kendi over his book, How to Be an Anti-Racist.

"Here's what it says. Opening lines: 'The remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination," the GOP presidential hopeful said.

Bash asked Ramaswamy about his remarks during an interview on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday morning, but the GOP candidate, who has seen his polling numbers increase in recent weeks, stood by his comments.

"You know, I'm sure, the KKK was responsible for more than a century's 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.

Ramaswamy defended the remarks, saying that he was trying to start an honest conversation about race and that he views Pressley's remarks as in the "same spirit" as the KKK.

"What I said is that the grand wizard 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," he said.

Bash, however, pointed out that the KKK was not just about the use of language.

According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), there were at least 4,743 lynchings in the United States from 1882 to 1968, many of which were conducted by members of the KKK. The organization fought against rights for Black people, including the right to vote, integrated schools and anti-discrimination policies. Despite Ramaswamy's comparison, Pressley has not advocated for any of these policies.

"That is a debate that is based on non-violent discussion that you just said. What you just said, you're using rhetoric. What she said, she's using rhetoric. That's one thing, and another thing is to say that she represents, and that she is a modern version of a KKK, which as you know is dedicated to the subjugation and violence against Black people. How on earth is she a modern grand wizard?" Bash asked.

Ramaswamy responded: "We all agree that the KKK was an awful organization that is a toxic stain in our national history. So given that we can start from that point of agreement, now that allows us to say, 'Well, who actually sounds like that organization today?' The people who are calling for more racial discrimination on the basis of skin color."

Newsweek reached out to Ramaswamy's campaign and Pressley's office for comment via email.

Meanwhile, Pressley's office responded to his attacks in a fundraising email reported by Politico.

"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. This is backwards and harmful, but that is the point," the email reads.