Defending Trump, Ramaswamy Rattles Off Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories

Vivek Ramaswamy’s defense of Donald J. Trump at Wednesday’s debate quickly devolved into a laundry list of far-right conspiracy theories.

After attacking his opponents for turning on Mr. Trump after supporting him, Mr. Ramaswamy took aim at “the deep state” as the real enemy of the American people.

That amorphous entity, Mr. Ramaswamy claimed, clearly had a role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

“Why am I the only person, on this stage at least, who can say that Jan. 6 now does look like it was an inside job?” Mr. Ramaswamy said. (Dozens of criminal indictments and bipartisan congressional investigations rebut Mr. Ramaswamy’s argument.)

While Mr. Trump has tried to make those convicted of crimes for their actions on Jan. 6 into political martyrs, the assertion that the riot was somehow an “inside job” is more often confined to the fever swamps of conspiracy theories.

As if reading a far-right message board, Mr. Ramaswamy continued, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen by “big tech” (several intelligence agencies called it “the most secure in American history”) and that the 2016 election, which Mr. Trump won, was also “stolen from him by the national security establishment” because of the investigation into allegations that his campaign had colluded with Russia.

And Mr. Ramaswamy claimed that the “great replacement theory” — the racist idea that minorities, sometimes manipulated by Jews, want to replace white Americans — was not a conspiracy theory but instead a “basic statement of the Democratic Party’s platform.”

The “great replacement theory” has been creeping into the conservative mainstream, popularized by hosts like Tucker Carlson, and has been referenced by several mass shooters.