There's one thing you must say for Vivek Ramaswamy: he's unafraid to go into the center of controversy.
Ramaswamy waded into the pro-Hamas fray in Chicago outside the Democrat convention. And appearing on today's CNN This Morning, Ramaswamy described his experiences in holding a town hall in Springfield, Ohio in the midst of the controversy over Haitian immigration there.
You might even say that appearing on CNN took some courage, too. Though it should be said that while host Kasie Hunt challenged Ramaswamy on a number of points, it wasn't the kind of antagonistic confrontation that her CNN colleague Dana Bash recently launched against JD Vance.
The segment opened with a clip from the town hall in which a participant described himself as a half-black, lifelong resident of Springfield, and said that he has received more racial slurs in just the last two weeks than he had in his entire life before then.
Ohio native Ramaswamy was able to describe a constructive dialogue he had with the man, and also mentioned meeting with leaders of the Haitian community in Springfield.
Hunt tried to get Ramaswamy to say that Trump's recent comments about Haitians eating pets have led to the outbreak of tensions. She also cited Laura Loomer's comments that if Harris wins, the White House will smell like curry. Ramaswamy responded by saying that rather than "airlifting" a word that Trump or a supporter says, we should focus on the bigger issues surrounding immigration.
While Hunt wanted to focus on Trump and Loomer's words, Ramaswamy rightfully insisted:
"We can't sweep under the rug, in a town of 50,000 people, you had an influx of 20,000 Haitian migrants to a community that was unprepared to actually integrate them. Migrants who are unprepared to integrate themselves."
Let's go out on a limb and surmise that few if any members of the liberal media have experienced that kind of drastic demographic change in their neighborhoods.
Ramaswamy proposed a simple policy on the matter: the US should only accept immigrants who can speak English and who will not become reliant on welfare. He described a "tough" conversation with Haitians on the policy, but that ended with them acknowledging that it was fair. Hunt made the usual counterpoint that most migrants are coming to work, not to draw welfare.
Ramaswamy then made a sly suggestion:
"If people believe that we should admit migrants who are going to be reliant on Medicaid or welfare, then they could represent that view."
Looking at you, Kamala! Indeed, Harris has gone an egregious step further, saying that illegal immigrants should receive free gender-transition surgery. Funny how the liberal media has largely buried that story—though credit CNN for reporting it, along with Harris' desire to "end" immigrant detention.
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
9/24/24
6:46 am EDTSPRINGFIELD TOWN HALL PARTICIPANT: Since this story leads, and this is something that everyone needs to hear, the hateful language in this community has spiked. It's really, really bad. I'm half black, I'm half Hungarian, half, like, whatever you want to say.
I've become a target on the hate. I can probably count on my hand, both hands, how many times a racial slur has been said in my whole life. I've been called the n-word twice this week by just people who group me, friends of mine, friends of friends, and say like, get out of here. You're, Haitian, we don't want you here. Even with a six-month-old baby at a grocery store.
. . .
KASIE HUNT: That was one lifelong resident of Springfield, Ohio last week, telling former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy during a local town hall what he has experienced in the wake of Donald Trump's false claims about Haitian migrants eating pets in his home town.
. . .But I want to ask you about that moment in Springfield, Ohio from someone who has lived there their whole life, and who says they've not experienced this kind of racially motivated animosity from the members of their community before this past week. Is President trump's rhetoric contributing to what happened to that man? And do you think it's right?
VIVEK RAMASWAMY: So look, the reason I went to Springfield is I wanted to have open dialogue with the citizens of that community -- close to where I grew up as well. That was important to me.
And I want to be precise about what that man said because I think it was actually really important and insightful. He didn't say it was in the last week, you heard in that clip, he said it was in the last year. And I did, I'll tell you what I told him to his face, which I believe is true, is a big part of the uptick we are seeing in anti-black racism and anti-minority racism -- and we are seeing that uptick in the country. And it worries me. Is a response to the anti-racist policies that have increased race consciousness in this country over the last several years.
I say this, I'm releasing a new book today. I wrote a book about three to four years ago called Woke Inc, predicting exactly this trend. And that's my concern with race-conscious policies. There is no better way to create racial animus in this country than to take something else of value from somebody else based on the color of their skin. That's a prediction I made my first book several years ago. And I'm sad to say that has come to transpire.
And that man and I had a great exchange. I also think we need more of that in this country.
. . .
HUNT: You say you're making this argument about raising race consciousness from the left. And that's one way you put it in your book. But I do want to kind of circle back to some of the things that we're hearing from your party, from your Republican presidential nominee who has been traveling, for example, with Laura Loomer, who wrote on Twitter, quote, if Kamala Harris wins, the White House will smell like curry and White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center. Marjorie Taylor Greene came out and said that that was racist. Do you agree with her?
RAMASWAMY: Look, I'm against identity politics in all of its forms. Whether it comes from the left or from the right. I've been crystal clear on that. I think we need to revive our shared American identity. That being said, I do think we've gotten into a bad habit, where Donald Trump says some word, or a supporter of Donald Trump says some word. That gets airlifted out becomes the story, rather than focusing on the substance of the actual underlying issue.. . .
Look, I met went and met with many of those Haitian community leaders during that trip myself. I think it's important to get all perspectives. What I will say is this, I think this debate about immigration is in the long run going to be a good thing for the country. We can't sweep under the rug, in a town of 50,000 people, you had an influx of 20,000 Haitian migrants to a community that was unprepared to actually integrate them. Migrants who are unprepared to integrate themselves. That's a tough conversation. But it's one that we actually need to be having in this country. And we weren't before.
It's one of the things I talk about in this book, is how do we actually get to solutions on this issue? People skirt around this issue of legal immigration. I'll tell you what I told those Haitian migrants. It was a tough exchange, but one where we actually came out stronger for it. I said, it's my view that if anybody enters this country, the United States generally should not admit somebody who's going to be a client of the welfare state, somebody who is going to be a recipient of government assistance. I don't think the U.S. policy should admit those immigrants, legally or not, into the United States of America.
And in that exchange, the people on the other side, they thought about it, they said, you know what? That's a fair policy. That's constructive. And I think we need to think about immigration --
HUNT: Well, a lot of these migrants came for jobs, right? I mean, people that are working in manufacturing roles in the city of Springfield. Which is why they're there, not, are not what you just described there.
RAMASWAMY: Well, actually, actually respectfully disagree with you. When you look at the rates of usage of welfare, Medicaid, etc., I think it's a reasonable immigration policy for the U.S. to set, that if you're going to come to this country, we want people who are able to speak the English language, broadly used in the United States, and able to stand independently without relying on government assistance or the welfare state.
That's the kind of debate we need to be having. If people believe that we should admit migrants who are going to be reliant on Medicaid or welfare, then they could represent that view. But we haven't been having that debate today.
