Nov 17, 2023
Vivek Ramaswamy Refers To Homeless People As 'Vermin'
Vivek Ramaswamy Refers To Homeless People As 'Vermin'
- 5 minutes
Appearing on CNN News Night with
anchor Abby Phillip Vivek Ramaswamy
wasn't going to let Donald Trump be
the only GOP presidential candidate to
use the loaded term vermin,
saying on Wednesday night the word also
applies to San Francisco homelessness or
homeless people.
[00:00:18]
>> Over the weekend,
I just wanna play this from what
President Trump said to his supporters.
>> Speaker 3: We will root out
the communists, marxists, fascists, and
the radical left thugs that live like
vermin within the confines of our country.
[00:00:34]
The threat from outside
forces is far less sinister,
dangerous and
grave than the threat from within.
>> That language, they live like vermin,
do you believe that that is,
as your Republican colleague
Chris Christia said, Neo-Nazi rhetoric.
[00:00:51]
>> Speaker 4: This is a classic
mainstream media move.
Pick some individual phrase of
Donald Trump, focus on literally that word
without actually interrogating
the substance of what's at issue.
>> Speaker 4: The word was chosen
of a cultural war in this country.
Well, you know what?
[00:01:07]
It's actually describing
a series of behaviors.
You have antifa and other related groups
that have been burning down cities for
the last three years in this country.
>> Speaker 2: Would you
describe them as vemin?
>> Wildly violating the rule of law, we
have an invasion on our southern border.
We have millions of people
crossing our southern border.
Let's talk about the substance of why
we have to recognize that we're not in
[00:01:24]
ordinary times.
>> Speaker 4: Would you use
that language yourself?
>> The vocabulary of the verb in or
not is not what's important.
Well, I haven't used that language, so
you can look at my track record
under the campaign trail.
I talk about the issues,
we all talk about them differently.
But what I'm not gonna do is play
some game of focusing on some word
[00:01:40]
that somebody else said without ignoring
entirely the substance of what we're
actually talking about.
>> Speaker 1: There is no substance.
And he refused, of course,
unwilling to discuss the matter further,
he shares who he thinks are vermin.
Take a look at this.
[00:01:55]
>> Speaker 4: Picking on Donald Trump's
word vermin to talk about that status quo.
You know what's vermin?
What's running around San Francisco on
a given day before Gavin Newsom cleaned it
up on a dime to roll out
the red carpet for Xi Jinping.
If he could do that for Xi Jinping,
he could have done it on an ordinary day.
[00:02:10]
And yet we're here sitting talking
not about the substance of that, but
on one word that Donald Trump
said in some speech in Miami.
This is what's wrong with
the mainstream media.
Focus on the substance, and let's have an
actual policy debate rather than talking
to a presidential candidate instead of the
policy substance of what's actually going
[00:02:26]
on in the country, picking on some word
that Donald Trump said on a certain day
and asking me for
comment on it, give me a break.
>> Speaker 2: Look, Mr. Ramaswamy,
the former president saying that people on
the left live like vermin in this country,
that's a pretty substantive thing.
[00:02:43]
And the word choice was not accidental.
>> Speaker 4: Looking for
people living in San Francisco normally.
>> Social media and I think it's
important for us to talk about it, but
we appreciate your time tonight,
thank you very much for joining us.
>> Speaker 4: I think it's important
to talk about the substance of it.
Thank you, Abby.
[00:02:58]
>> Speaker 1: What substance
are you looking for
us to discuss with Donald Trump?
Donald Trump is almost as flat
as your ass is, Mr. Ramaswamy.
You don't have substance, neither of you.
You could try and talk fast and try to
out talk people, talk over people, but
you are disgustingly empty when it
comes to policy and substance, you and
[00:03:15]
Donald Trump.
And the idea that you're
gonna sneak in the fact or
the thought that people in San Francisco
are vermin while you're saying you don't
wanna discuss this or use this word
is intentional on your part as well.
So I cannot stand this type of politics,
it's absolutely disgusting to me.
[00:03:34]
This person is substantive list,
yet and still he is a place for
him in the Republican party.
And that is damn sure disgustingly.
>> Speaker 5: I mean, my question
to him is was it substantive or
focusing on the substance when he made
fun of Ron DeSantis for wearing heels?
[00:03:53]
Was he sticking to
the substance when he said
that Nikki Haley's daughter is on TikTok?
Is that sticking to the substance?
I think the hell not Ramaswamy.
But just quickly to the actual
[LAUGH] substance of what he did say,
[00:04:09]
he doubled down that
homeless people are vermin,
which is a level of dehumanization
that is difficult for me to fathom.
The idea that you could look at a person
who is suffering immensely because
of policy decisions by the United States
to view them as less than human,
[00:04:28]
to view them as animals.
I mean, I mentioned earlier in the show,
but there are tent cities for migrants who
fought to come to the United States right
around the block from where I live.
And I see people in Chicago, which is
supposed to be like this blue blue city,
[00:04:44]
protesting, not the conditions that the
city is forcing these asylum seekers to
live in, children sleeping in tents
outside on the hard floor in Chicago,
winter is happening right now.
They're not protesting that,
they're protesting that they
have to see these people.
[00:04:59]
They want them out of their neighborhoods.
They don't want better conditions for
them, they don't want them around at all.
And American politicians continue to
choose to represent policies that
exacerbate homelessness instead of
actually investing in meaningful
[00:05:16]
solutions to solve homelessness so
that every individual in the richest
country in the world can live in dignity
and not have to sleep literally outside.
I mean, it's grotesque.
I keep saying absurd, but that's all I
can really say about Vivek Ramaswamy,
[00:05:34]
born into immense privilege, who would
spit on somebody who didn't have a doctor
mother and a lawyer father and a rich
house to [LAUGH] come home to every day.
>> Speaker 1: It's absolutely disgusting.
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