MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) — Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has declared that, if elected, on day one in office he will pardon former U.S. President Donald Trump of the federal charges brought against him. Ramaswamy also challenged every other candidate in both the Democrat and Republican parties to commit to doing so as well.
In a post on Twitter, Ramaswamy wrote, “I challenge every US Presidential candidate to join me in standing for TRUTH. Commit to pardon Donald Trump for these federal charges on Day 1, or explain why you won’t. No one should hide. Not Biden. Not DeSantis. Not Haley. Not Pence. Not RFK. Not Scott. Not anyone. Principles over politics.”
I challenge every US Presidential candidate to join me in standing for TRUTH. Commit to pardon Donald Trump for these federal charges on Day 1, or explain why you won’t. No one should hide. Not Biden. Not DeSantis. Not Haley. Not Pence. Not RFK. Not Scott. Not anyone. Principles… pic.twitter.com/qYP3fUrE5R
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) June 13, 2023
Sending a letter to every presidential candidate, Ramaswamy challenged each one to commit to signing it or to explain why he or she would not. Denouncing the wealthy donor base that he said was counseling him to distance himself from the situation, Ramaswamy said such a course of action would betray true democracy and the American people, given the clear political motivations behind the Biden administrations unprecedented move against a former President of the United States and a political rival in a live presidential campaign.
“It’s going to be difficult for those other candidates to sign this letter,” Ramaswamy said. “The donor class has been calling every Republican candidate and telling us to stay away from this, not to touch it from a 10-foot pole.”
“I refuse to abide by being a disciple of the donor class,” he declared. “It would be a lot easier for me as a Republican candidate in this race if Donald Trump were not in it. But I don’t want to win this election, unlike others, by eliminating our competition, by a federal administrative police state arresting my opponents. I want to do it the way our Founding Fathers believed we should’ve, starting in 1776, that it is the people of this country, where every person’s voice and vote counts equally, that is how we decide who governs this country, not by a federal administrative police state.”
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“The use of police force by a sitting U.S. President against his chief political rival in the midst of a presidential election sets a dangerous precedent in our country,” Ramaswamy said in a press release.
“No one is above the law: the U.S. President shouldn’t be able to use the federal police to arrest his opponents,” he said. “No one should be below the law either, yet there are now two standards of justice depending on your political viewpoints.”
“That’s the single greatest threat to our constitutional republic today,” Ramaswamy said.
On Friday, Trump’s chief Republican rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, also blasted the Trump indictment as an example of “the weaponization of federal law enforcement,” which he said “represents a mortal threat to a free society.”
Trump pleaded “not guilty” on Tuesday to the more than three dozen federal charges levied against him related to his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House. Trump is the first former U.S. president in American history to face federal charges from the Department of Justice.
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