Former President Donald Trump's booking at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta is not an indictment of the 2024 frontrunner, but of America's "national civic health," GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told Fox News on Thursday.
Ramaswamy spoke as Trump landed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and was shuttled to the penitentiary for booking.
"I think this is shameful, Laura. This is an indictment not of Donald Trump, but of our national civic health that we have gotten to a place where we have a party in power that will use any charge in any jurisdiction for at the same time, in the middle of an election designed, mark my words, to stop their lead political rival currently from running," Ramaswamy said on "The Ingraham Angle."
Ramaswamy said Trump's treatment by Democratic District Attorney Fani Willis is politicized and should trouble not only Republicans, but Democrats who believe in America's founding principles, and a government by and for the people rather than "Old World" top-down statism.
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He underlined that it would be much easier to win the presidency with Trump out of the electoral picture but that he stands against Trump's treatment by the proverbial swamp on-principle.
"I'm saying this coming out of a debate last night that went really well in many national polls. I'm now in second," he said, adding America is societally on "thin ice."
Referring to how anti-Trump Republicans like former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan lamented some of the debate dais' conditional support for Trump should he win the primary, Ramaswamy reiterated that the people should not allow the "deep state" to manipulate who their nominee is.
Instead, the people should be left to pick their leader without what he considered interference in Atlanta, New York and Washington, he said.
"The person who leads this country next should be the person who the citizens of this nation actually choose. I think that's not a radical idea, yet it seems radical to the likes of not only Joe Biden — but look at our own party: Liz Cheney, to Chris Christie, to Asa Hutchinson, to Larry Hogan… echoing the same talking points."
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Trump's booking proves there is a societal chasm in America deeper than a left-right divide, but instead one that pits those who believe in the founding ideals "that people can be trusted to self-govern" against those who believe America's leader should be chosen by "a small group of self-appointed quasi-monarchs in the back of palace halls in Old World England."
"I do not think we're in a moment for incremental reform," he said. "I think we require a revival of the ideals of 1776 itself."
Host Laura Ingraham asked Ramaswamy about several claims and attacks made by his opponents, including purported previous business connections to China.
Ingraham underlined she believes he has been "excellent" in confronting threats from Beijing, and offered the candidate the opportunity to clear the air.
Ramaswamy said he once gave a speech to a Chinese biotech conference, adding he would happily release the video to prove there is no controversy there.
He said instead that his relationship in that regard showed he knows more about China and its purported economic manipulation and treatment of other countries' businesses than any other candidate on the debate dais.
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