Vivek Ramaswamy Doubles Down on Pledge to Pardon Trump, Says ‘Censorship’ to Blame for January 6

Following Donald Trump’s Tuesday indictment for his role in January 6 and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy doubled down on his pledge to pardon the former president if elected and claimed that censorship of citizens caused the riot.

“The corrupt federal police just won’t stop until they’ve achieved their mission: eliminate Trump,” the conservative entrepreneur tweeted in a caption over a video statement reacting to the indictment. “This is un-American & I commit to pardoning Trump for this indictment.”

Ramaswamy added that Trump is not responsible for the mob of his supporters storming the Capitol in January 2021.

“The real cause was systematic & pervasive censorship of citizens in the year leading up to it,” he said. “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.”

Trump was indicted after an investigation into his conduct surrounding the 2020 election, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office announced. The grand jury concluded that Trump peddled a lie that the election was stolen due to widespread voter fraud, which sparked the unrest to disrupt the certification of the election results for then-candidate Joe Biden. Trump was charged with four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

The 45-page indictment was released shortly after Trump commented on Truth Social that he was aware that “deranged Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024, will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President, me, at 5:00 P.M.”

GOP 2024 contender and former vice president Mike Pence said his old running mate should be disqualified from serving in the office again because he put “himself over the Constitution.” Prosecutors said in the indictment that Pence was pressured by Trump to help him nullify the election during at least four calls in late 2020 and early 2021. Trump allegedly told Pence he was “too honest” when the vice president pushed back against the idea, according to the indictment. Pence said he did not have the authority.

“Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States,” Pence tweeted Tuesday. “Our country is more important than one man. Our constitution is more important than any one man’s career. On January 6th, Former President Trump demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. I chose the Constitution and I always will.”

GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested that the Department of Justice launched an “attack” on Trump via the indictment to “distract” from recent revelations surrounding the investigation into Hunter Biden’s scandals.

“We’ve recently learned,” McCarthy tweeted, that “Hunter received money from China (contradicting President Biden’s claim)” and that “President Biden spoke with Hunter’s business associates over 20 times (contradicting what Biden previously claimed).”

McCarthy also alleged corruption in the Department of Justice to arrange a “sweetheart” plea deal for Hunter Biden that was designed to give him broad immunity from future prosecutions. The plea agreement flopped in court this week after the judge overseeing it questioned the constitutionality of some of its parts. Then on Monday, longtime Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer testified that Joe Biden, while serving as vice president, joined his son’s business meetings via phone or in person at least 20 times and was sold by his son as “the brand” in overseas business dealings, House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer relayed in a statement.

The culmination of these developments, all very damning to the Bidens, could have inspired the Tuesday release of the Trump indictment to delegitimize the former president as he moves toward the GOP nomination, McCarthy implied.

“Just yesterday a new poll showed President Trump is without a doubt Biden’s leading political opponent,” McCarthy added. “Everyone in America could see what was going to come next: DOJ’s attempt to distract from the news and attack the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, President Trump. House Republicans will continue to uncover the truth about Biden Inc. and the two-tiered system of justice.”