‘Gave Him The Middle Finger and Drove Off’: Ramaswamy’s Car Rammed by ‘Protesters’ in Iowa – News18

Indian American Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Thursday said that two protesters attending his event in the US state of Iowa rammed into one of their campaign cars. The youngest GOP hopeful’s camp claimed this was done purposely in retaliation to his remarks on Ukraine aid.

“Vivek Ramaswamy attended a campaign event earlier today & was met by a small group of protestors. He respectfully answered their questions and thanked them for expressing their views even while disagreeing with them. One of the protestors then got into their car, CRASH INTO VIVEK’S CAR, gave him + his staff the middle finger, and drove off,” Ramaswamy spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“The Left calls itself the party of love and tolerance. But free speech means respect for ALL Americans’ speech and ensuring that ALL voices are heard— not just those the Left agree with. Ironically, the perp’s car had a Neighborhood Crime Watch sticker on it,” she added.

The police account of the crash in the central Iowa city of Grinnell diverged from the account told by Ramaswamy’s campaign. Police say they were dispatched to a coffee shop in the city shortly after 1 p.m. for a report of property damage.

Police contacted a 22-year-old woman who reported that she had just eaten lunch at a nearby deli and was backing her car out of her parking spot when she accidentally struck a Ford Expedition that was across the street. Police say the woman told them she was not there protesting anything, and had no idea whose vehicle she had hit. Both vehicles had minor damage, police said, and the woman received a traffic summons for unsafe backing.

Ramaswamy spokesperson McLaughlin told The Associated Press that the campaign stands by its assessment that the driver was a protester. She also stood by her assessment that there were two people in the car that hit the campaign car. “I’m confident of what happened. I was there,” she said.

Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur was in Grinnell for a scheduled interview with a local CBS News affiliate before heading to Des Moines to host a fall-themed, family campaign event.

In a post on X, Ramaswamy said, “Had a civil exchange with protestors today, right before two of them then got into their car & rammed it into ours,” he wrote. “Those two should be held accountable, but the rest of the peaceful protestors shouldn’t be tarred by the behavior of two bad actors.”

Ramaswamy later sent out a fundraising email with details of the crash, asking supporters to “stand for free speech” and help out his campaign. He is not the first candidate whose car has been hit while campaigning this election season. In July, his rival Ron DeSantis was involved in a multicar accident near Tennessee, en route to a campaign event.

(With agency inputs)