- Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Sunday that Van Jones should “just shut up” after the CNN commentator criticized him
- Jones said Ramaswamy was 'dangerous' and a rising 'demagogue' after comments the 2024 hopefuls made about the Great Replacement Theory
- Ramaswamy said on stage during the fourth GOP debate that the Great Replacement Theory was a “basic statement of the Democratic Party platform.”
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Sunday that Van Jones should “just shut up,” after the CNN commentator portrayed the entrepreneur as “dangerous” and a rising “demagogue.”
Jones' comments came on the evening of the fourth Republican debate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama earlier this month, after CNN's Dana Bash interviewed Ramaswamy and asked him about some of the conspiracy theories he brought to the stage.
Ramaswamy emphasized that January 6 was an “inside job” and that the Great Replacement Theory “is not a grand right-wing conspiracy theory, but a basic statement of the Democratic Party platform.”
The Great Replacement Theory suggests that non-white people will replace a white majority – and in the United States this is often used as a tactic to sow fear so that voters will support stricter immigration policies from Latin American countries.
'That guy is dangerous. That is dangerous. When those people said, “Jews won't replace us, Jews won't replace us,” that slogan comes on top of a very sick and distorted view that if you bring enough people of color here, we're so flawed, we're so stupid. “We are so unwanted that we will be zombies filling the ranks of some Democratic Party agenda,” Jones noted.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Sunday that CNN's Van Jones should “just shut up” after Jones called Ramaswamy “dangerous” and a rising “demagogue” in a segment after the fourth Republican debate earlier this month
Jones said this type of rhetoric leads to violence and endangers Jewish people and people of color.
“And the smugly condescending way in which he spews his venom is very, very dangerous, because he won't stop Trump, but he will outlive Trump by 50 years,” Jones said of Ramaswamy.
“And you look at the rise of an American demagogue, who is a very, very despicable person,” he said.
“And I literally shook when I heard him talk, because a lot of people don't know that this is just one step away from Nazi propaganda coming out of his mouth,” Jones said.
On stage Sunday, Ramaswamy ridiculed Jones' concerns.
“You heard the Van Jones character later on CNN: 'This is the rise of an American demagogue who will live fifty years longer than Trump, this is dangerous, I'm shaking,'” Ramasawmy said.
“Just shut up,” the 2024 hopeful said.
CNN commentator Van Jones called Vivek Ramaswamy 'dangerous' and an emerging 'demagogue'
The crowd cheered.
“At some point you just have to shut the fuck up,” Ramaswamy said, repeating the expletive.
During the panel discussion on CNN, another commentator tried to make Jones feel better, pointing out that Ramaswamy's numbers have dropped since the Republican debates began.
Ramaswamy, who did not hold political office before launching his presidential bid, peaked at about 8 percent nationally in mid-September, just weeks after the Republican debate in Milwaukee.
According to the Real Clear Politics polling average, he now has 4.4 percent support.