It looks like VivekGPS might have inadvertently tapped into online reports about Jussie Smollett’s faked hate crime.
Thursday, Vivek Ramaswamy claimed that his campaign vehicle was deliberately hit by a protester while he was in Grinnell, Iowa campaigning.
In a post on X, Jussie Ramasmollett claimed:
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.
Were they Nigerian bodybuilders?
Did they shout, “This is MAGA Country?”
According to a report in the Des Moines Register, while Ramasmollett’s unoccupied Ford Expedition was indeed hit by another vehicle, his claim that it was a deliberate act by protesters has been disputed by the police.
The Ramaswamy campaign contacted the police after their vehicle was hit and reportedly told the responding officer that the driver struck their vehicle deliberately before “speeding off.”
But in a statement last night, the Grinnell Police Department said their investigation into the accident “revealed no evidence to substantiate” the claims made by the Ramaswamy campaign.
According to the police, the driver said she had just eaten lunch at a nearby deli and had returned to her Honda to leave. As she was backing out of a parking spot, her rear passenger side bumper “impacted” the rear bumper on the driver’s side of the Expedition, which was parked on the opposite side of the street.
The driver also told police she wasn’t one of the protesters, didn’t know whose vehicle she hit, and “did not flee the scene of the accident,” the statement said.
But Team Ramasmollett isn’t backing down.
The campaign sent the Des Moines Register video footage showing Ramasmollett on the sidewalk talking on his phone when a driver in a blue Honda, seen in the background parked along the street, honks the horn and starts to pull out of the parking spot.
In the clip, it appears the driver flipped the bird, but someone is standing in the way, so it’s hard to be sure.
Between the parked car in the foreground and the traffic on the street, it is hard to see if the SUV parked across the street is the Ford Expedition in question, but I presume it is. And since the video clip ends before the Honda has even left the parking spot, there is no footage of the Honda hitting the SUV and “speeding away.”
Isn’t it convenient that the clip provided to the Des Moines Register doesn’t include that part?
Campaign spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told the Register that Ramasmollett didn’t witness the accident.
He was standing right there. How did he miss it?
Something about this claim stinks to high heaven.
Vivek Ramaswamy and his campaign aren’t known for their truthful framing. Remember, this campaign thinks Vivek was the first Republican in the history of the world to suggest getting rid of the Department of Education.
Yesterday’s fender bend was likely an accident that Jussie Ramasmollett is blowing out of proportion to boost media coverage of his campaign while playing the victim.
On the bright side, at least Vivek didn’t go the full Jussie Smollett and hire the driver to hit his vehicle.
Then again, you never know.
Maybe the Grinnell Police Department should investigate further to see if the Ramaswamy Campaign paid the driver by check.
I despise politicians who play the victim on social media. It’s passive/aggressive, self-serving, and not at all presidential.
This idiotic incident makes Vivek look like a big girl’s blouse.