Vivek Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire entrepreneur and 2024 Republican presidential candidate, rushed to the defense of Donald Trump following news that the former president was indicted regarding his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Ramaswamy said the indictment is un-American and that if he is elected president, he will pardon Trump, something he previously said when Trump was indicted earlier this year.
"The corrupt federal police just won't stop until they've achieved their mission: eliminate Trump," Ramaswamy tweeted. "This is un-American & I commit to pardoning Trump for this indictment. Donald Trump isn't the cause of what happened on Jan 6. The real cause was systematic & pervasive censorship of citizens in the year leading up to it.
"If you tell people they can't speak, that's when they scream. If you tell people they can't scream, that's when they tear things down. If we fail to admit the truth, Jan 6 will just be a preview of far worse to come & I don't want to see us get there," he wrote.
Ramaswamy said in a video posted with the tweet that it would be easier for him to win the Republican nomination if Trump wasn't in the race.
"That's not how I want to win. This isn't about politics to me," he said. "This is about principles. We do not want to become a country where the party in power is able to use banana republic-like tactics to eliminate political opponents."
Trump was indicted for the third time this year, and for a second time by Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith. The four-count indictment was delivered Tuesday by a grand jury in federal court in Washington. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and claims the latest indictment is part of a campaign to keep him from regaining the presidency.