Vivek Ramaswamy, campaigning in Iowa, defends his trafficking in conspiracy theories

Days after veering sharply into right-wing conspiracy theories during the fourth GOP presidential debate, Vivek Ramaswamy was in Iowa defending his decision, telling reporters that “sometimes the truth is uncomfortable.”

During the Dec. 6 debate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Ramaswamy touted debunked ideas widely considered to be conspiracy theories, claiming falsely that “January 6 now does look like it was an inside job,” that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Donald Trump and that the U.S. government “lied to us for 20 years about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11."

Ramaswamy received criticism for dredging up unproven conspiracy theories. Speaking to reporters outside a Sioux Center event earlier this week, Ramaswamy acknowledged that three years ago, he also would have considered many of the ideas he shared during the debate to be false, “but I believe in being grounded to the truth.”

“What was a conspiracy theory yesterday becomes truth tomorrow,” he said. “That's not the way a government leads a country. It's not the way a president should lead the country. And as I said on the debate stage, if you want somebody who's going to go in there and speak truth to power in the deep state, then vote for somebody who's going to speak the truth to you. And sometimes the truth is uncomfortable.”

'Great replacement theory' espoused by white supremacists

Those ideas are concerning, said Kedron Bardwell, a political science professor at Simpson College who teaches a class on conspiracy theories, but they have become relatively mainstream among Republicans in the age of Trump.

What really caught his attention was Ramaswamy’s debate stage claim that Democrats are practicing “great replacement theory,” which incorrectly attributes demographic changes in the United States to a cabal of liberal elites orchestrating to systematically replace white Americans.

“Great replacement, for me, just came out of left field,” Bardwell said. “If you look at the roots of that theory and the impact of that theory, it is one of the most radical or radicalizing theories out there.”

The racist idea has fueled fringe groups and violence, including the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville with tiki torches chanting “Jews will not replace us” in 2017 as well as multiple mass shooters, including one who targeted Black people in a Buffalo supermarket in 2022. Those shooters have cited the idea in the manifestos they’ve left behind.

In a post-debate interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Ramaswamy disagreed with Bash’s assertion that the idea is “dangerous.”

“I disagree. I think what's dangerous is the suppression of open dialogue,” Ramaswamy said.

"I want to be careful in the way I speak about this because I don't want to get to a place about violence," Ramaswamy said later in the interview. "…  But as a leader, it is important to give people the permission to say in public what they will otherwise say in private."

A New Hampshire man was arrested and charged Dec. 11 after being accused of threatening to kill Ramaswamy and his event attendees in a pair of text messages.

Authorities haven't released a motive. But the Ramaswamy campaign put out a statement thanking investigators for their work and condemning “deranged” voices on the left.

"We constantly hear about Jan. 6 and ‘violence’ and ‘extremism on the right’ from the media, but the same media goes silent when the target is a Republican,” the statement said.

“Deranged voices and left-wing cranks like Keith Olbermann and Steve Schmidt continue to demonize Republicans and question our loyalty to the country. It’s no wonder that fanatics will take action. Whenever it’s some nut with alleged right-wing views, the media is quick to blame all conservatives for stoking violence. Yet the media never looks in the mirror and sees that they stoke hatred and violence by questioning our patriotism and motives and accusing us of undermining democracy.”

Ramaswamy is currently polling in a distant fourth place at 5% in Iowa, according to a December Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll.

Trump leads the poll with 51% — 46 points ahead of Ramaswamy. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is at 19%, claiming second place over former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is at 16%.

No other candidate tops 5% in the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

Ramaswamy ramps up attacks on eminent domain for carbon-capture pipelines

As Ramaswamy seeks to gain momentum, he has become more aggressive, both in terms of his campaigning — he’s promised to visit each of Iowa’s 99 counties twice by Caucus Day — and his rhetoric.

“People parrot those theories as well because they think it will stoke the base,” Bardwell said.

Ramaswamy has also begun focusing some of his fire on Iowa politicians.

He recently began calling out Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa lawmakers for failing to match his criticism of the proposed use of eminent domain to build carbon capture pipelines across private land.

The proposed pipelines would transfer liquefied carbon dioxide emissions underground, and one of the pipeline companies continues to seek a permit granting eminent domain powers, which would allow it to force landowners to sell access to their property.

“You could take the carbon capture pipeline in the state as well,” he said. “Why am I the only major candidate who is talking about that in the Republican Party right now? There's an answer to that. I think it's a system that is heavily influenced to put it kindly by special interests. Well, I think that in my case, my biggest donor is me. That's what allows me to speak freely.”

One company, Navigator CO2 Ventures, withdrew its proposal in October; and another, Summit Carbon Solutions, is awaiting a regulatory decision that will likely come next spring. The third, Wolf Carbon Solutions, has said it doesn’t plan to seek eminent domain powers for its project.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he believes negotiation is the best path forward for the pipelines, arguing there is a "narrow" use case for eminent domain.

Former President Donald Trump, asked about the pipelines at an event in Council Bluffs this summer, said "we're working on that," and assured the questioner that "if we win, that's going to be taken care of."

While an attorney for landowners has argued that one agribusiness magnate's access to the governor helped paved the way for the Summit pipeline's approval, a spokesperson for Reynolds has said that "concerns of 'undue influence' are completely unfounded and untrue.'"

Des Moines Register reporters Galen Bacharier and Donnelle Eller contributed to this report.

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Register.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Vivek Ramaswamy defends promoting conspiracies: 'Truth is uncomfortable'