On Monday, Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, announced that he plans to pardon Edward Snowden, a former American intelligence contractor, and Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.
Appearing on the Hugh Hewitt podcast, Ramaswamy called out the "two standards of justice" plaguing the United States. He argued that when it comes to justice, public officials who are exposed should be held to the same standards as everyone else.
"Once we have learned the level of corruption that our government actually has engaged in, and repeatedly lying to the public, in a certain form, it's a form of selective prosecution to not actually prosecute the government actors who broke the law, but simply to prosecute the one government actor who did expose it by technically violating a law of a different kind," he said.
"I think that Edward Snowden, part of what made his acts heroic — and I would go so far as to say that I disagreed with him at the time, but there's a certain heroism in it at the same time — is that he took a risk that he didn't have to take in order to actually expose to the public what the public did not already know, and change that would not have happened in terms of delivering accountability to the government if he hadn't taken that risk," Ramaswamy stated.
Ramaswamy went on to argue that Assange was "a member of a disfavored political class at the time," but Chelsea Manning, who was sentenced after leaking classified materials to WikiLeaks, had her time commuted "because she's a member of a favored political class" as a transgender woman.
During the interview, Ramaswamy also appeared to liken Snowden's risk-taking to that of Rosa Parks.
"Wait, wait, wait," Hewitt interjected. "Did you just compare Rosa Parks to Edward Snowden?"
"No, I did not," Ramaswamy replied, "but I did compare the aspect of their willingness to take a risk in order for, at the time, breaking a rule that at the time was punishable."
"It was progress of very different kinds, but yes, did Edward Snowden contribute to us making progress in delivering accountability to a part of the national security establishment that wasn't previously held accountable? Absolutely, he did."
In previous interviews, the conservative entrepreneur has stated that he would grant a pardon to former President Donald Trump if elected. Trump is currently facing federal criminal charges for his handling of classified materials.
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