Republican primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy reported a violent incident that occurred hours before a campaign event in Grinnell, Iowa. In a message posted on social media, Ramaswamy explained that after having a verbal exchange with some protesters this Thursday, one of them purposely drove thier car into his.
In some videos uploaded to social networks, you can see how the candidate chats with some people holding signs and asking him some questions. The candidate made an effort to respond to as many people as possible.
Had a civil exchange with protestors today, right before two of them then got into their car & rammed it into ours. Those two should be held accountable, but the rest of the peaceful protestors shouldn’t be tarred by the behavior of two bad actors. https://t.co/AePWupLDEj
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) October 5, 2023
Other videos show Ramaswamy talking on the phone while several vehicles use their horns and there is some commotion on the road. "Today we had a civil exchange with the protesters, just before two of them got into their car and rammed it into ours. Those two protesters must be held accountable, but the rest of the peaceful protesters must not be tarnished by the behavior of two bad actors," the primary candidate tweeted.
It would have been a blue Honda Civic that had hit a Ramaswamy campaign team car from behind. According to what the campaign team told Fox, the occupants of the Honda Civic shouted various insults. The driver was a progressive woman, according to the candidate's team.
Suppose a guy wearing a MAGA hat is standing amongst protestors at a Democrat presidential candidate’s event, then gets into his car with aggressive bumper stickers, flips off the candidate & screams profanities, lays on his horn, and then reverse-rams the candidate’s parked SUV.… https://t.co/eg7uSKUxSn
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) October 6, 2023
The Police issue a statement
Given what happened, the Grinnell Police published a statement this Thursday. According to the police report, a 22-year-old woman had just eaten at an establishment in Grinnell when she returned to her vehicle in the parking lot. When reversing her car, the woman allegedly hit a black Ford Expedition rented by Ramaswamy's team.
Local Police are really trying to write this off as an unrelated accident?
You can see the person who hit the car clearly directly flipping Vivek off https://t.co/LZQQmPsJIr pic.twitter.com/iOrnZvJKwd
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 6, 2023
The police statement describes the crash as "accidental" and details that the Ford Expedition was not occupied at the time of the collision. The woman was released with a traffic citation for reckless driving. There were no injuries and the vehicles suffered only superficial damage.
The purpose of this press release is to clarify the information circulating on social media regarding the details of this accident. It has been spread on social media that two protesters intentionally rammed into Ramaswamy's vehicle and fled the scene. Our investigation has not revealed any evidence to corroborate this information.
