Vivek Ramaswamy Calls for Racist Florida Shooting Not To Be Politicized

Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy said the shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, which officials have said was motivated by racism should not be politicized, noting that the manifesto of the person who carried out a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier this year has not been released.

Ramaswamy made the remarks on NBC's Meet the Press after a white man with a firearm emblazoned with a swastika gunned down three Black people in an attack at a Dollar General store in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Jacksonville on Saturday afternoon. Ryan Palmeter, 21, then fatally shot himself.

Palmeter posted racist writings before carrying out the shooting, authorities said. There were writings to his family, federal law enforcement and at least one media outlet. He made it clear in his writings that he hated Black people, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said.

"Why do you think there are more race-based violent crimes on the right than on the left?" Chuck Todd asked Ramaswamy on Sunday.

Ramaswamy, a wealthy entrepreneur who has risen to as high as third in some Republican primary polls since joining the race six months ago, replied that he believes there's "a lot more violence that's also pervasive in parts of the country that supposedly are left-wing voter bases."

He added: "I don't think this is a left versus right issue, and I don't think we should try to politicize this through partisan goggles either."

"Do you ignore the manifesto?" Todd said. "Do you ignore the elements that allowed this manifesto to spread online?"

Ramaswamy noted that authorities have yet to release the writings left behind by the shooter who killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville in March. The shooter, Audrey Hale, was killed by police who responded to the shooting at The Covenant School.

"The fact of the matter is, I do think we have two standards that we're even applying if we're having a conversation about manifestos," Ramaswamy said. "We still have not yet even seen the manifesto of that transgender shooter in Nashville of a Christian school, and yet here, we're focusing on the motive.

"If we want to look at this through a politicized lens, let's look at what the political media and the political establishment is doing differentially in how they analyze different crimes and then create a new narrative around it."

Shortly after the Nashville shooting, police said Hale identified as transgender. However, authorities have yet to confirm Hale's gender identity and have not shared any evidence that links Hale's gender identity to the shooting.

Nashville police have said they will release the shooter's writings but not until they close their investigation into the shooting. Several people and groups have sued for access, including a Republican lawmaker, a gun rights organization and news outlets. But the Covenant School, the church that shares its buildings, and many parents want the records to remain private.

"What I said in the Nashville shooter case, I will say here," Ramaswamy said. "Any killing, any mass killing, is heinous. We need to get to the root cause of the mental health epidemic [and] address that. We need leadership that sets the right tone in this country.

"But if we are going to talk about manifestos and politicization, Chuck, I think it is incomplete not to look at the absence of releasing that Nashville shooter manifesto even as of today," he said. "That's why I personally traveled to Nashville to call for it. And that, I think is the best evidence of real politicization in terms of what the public sees and what the public doesn't. I want to apply one standard for everybody."

Newsweek reached out to Ramaswamy's campaign via email for further comment.