Vivek Ramaswamy Confronts Van Jones in Person Over ‘Dangerous’ Criticism: ‘We Got Death Threats!’

Jamie FreveleAug 26th, 2024, 12:50 pm
 
Vivek Ramaswamy and Van Jones

Screenshot from @bennyjohnson on Twitter/X

Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy confronted CNN commentator Van Jones at the Democratic National Convention about comments that he believed led to his family getting death threats.

During an initial encounter in the halls of the United Center in Chicago, caught on camera and shared by pro-Trump personality Benny Johnson, Ramaswamy told Jones that he got death threats “after the thing you said.” He was referring to Jones’s commentary on CNN following the fourth Republican primary debate in which he called Ramaswamy “dangerous” and that he was witnessing “the rise of an American demagogue that is a very, very despicable person.” He further said: “Literally, I was shaking listening to him talk because a lot of people don’t know that is one step away from Nazi propaganda coming out of his mouth.”

That debate — and commentary — took place on December 7. Just days later, a man was arrested in New Hampshire for threatening Ramaswamy’s life. Not long after that, Ramaswamy told a Turning Point USA audience that Jones should “just shut the fuck up.”

After both men passed each other by in a hallway, Johnson claimed that Jones came back to have a conversation with Ramaswamy. Johnson shared the moment which was captured on camera, and included Ramaswamy explaining how scared his wife became:

So, you were on air and you said things like “demagogue,” “he’s dangerous,” “he’s gonna be around for 50 years, long after Donald Trump’s gone.” The first time in the campaign we get a death threat of a man who wants to show up in New Hampshire. Thankfully, the police intervened. Got it. The next day — the next day, back to back — my wife is scared enough. The next day we wake up, it’s 3 a.m., we get a call from him — he’s my security guard — saying, “Thank God you picked up because we just got a call. Somebody showed up their house and has four dead bodies.” So that’s within 48 hours. And I’m not going to attribute that to your comment because whatever it is. But for our family, you know what, publicly I didn’t do it for our family. Yeah, it’s pissed us the heck off, actually. And so the reality is, I don’t try to engage in rhetoric that gets other people in danger of bodily harm. But I do think that if somebody is going to, even if you didn’t intend to provoke that kind of ire on my family, and that week it landed with you.

After turning to how Ramaswamy had a desire to bring down the rhetorical heat on both sides, Jones leaned in and asked for Ramaswamy’s contact information, promising: “I will call you in a couple of days, and I will apologize to your wife.” He added, “I’m really sorry,” which Ramaswamy called “classy.” Ramaswamy said that he hoped the two could “turn the page” and “build a friendship,” admitting that some of the heat was “on him.”

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