![[Twitter/Screenshot/Public — @VivekGRamaswamy]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screen-Shot-2024-01-03-at-5.12.42-PM-e1704323634159.png "[Twitter/Screenshot/Public — @VivekGRamaswamy]")
On a campaign stop Tuesday in Iowa, a Washington Post reporter asked Vivek Ramaswamy whether he condemns white supremacy.
The presidential candidate was asked the question after he received the endorsement of former Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who has been subject to claims of racism due to statements which some alleged to be accepting of white supremacy, according to the New York Times.
However, Ramaswamy informed the reporter he wasn’t going to pledge “allegiance to your new religion of modern woke-ism.”
“I’m not gonna bend the knee to your religion,” he added.
Instead, Ramaswamy cut to the heart of the matter:
“Of course I condemn any form of vicious racial discrimination in this country,” Ramaswamy stated. “But I think that the presumption of your question is fundamentally based on a falsehood that that really is the main form of racial discrimination we see in this country today.”
“Institutionalized racism is … based on affirmative action,” he continued. “It’s based on actually discriminating against people on the color of their skin in a way that’s actually institutionalized today.”
After Steve King announced he was endorsing me, predictably a lame reporter from @WaPo tried to get me to play the game of “denouncing white supremacy,” while she refused to actually define “white supremacy” which in recent years encompasses concepts like “punctuality” & “the… pic.twitter.com/V4e01qcsqw
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) January 3, 2024
Citing the Jussie Smollett hoax as an instance of false, media-hyped racism, Ramaswamy told the reporter to “stop picking on this farce of some figment that exists at some infinitesimally small fringe of the American public today.”
When the reporter said he didn’t answer the question, Ramaswamy answered, “Do I condemn vicious racial discrimination? Yes, I do. Am I gonna play your silly game of ‘gotcha’? No, I’m not, and frankly this is why people have lost trust [in mainstream media].” (RELATED: Vivek Goes Scorched Earth On CNN, Claims He’s Skipping Their Debate Over ‘Shenanigans’)
“You want to know what the best way is to end discrimination on the basis of race?” he asked. “Stop discriminating on the basis of race. Do that and we’re gonna to move this country forward.”