OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
2024 GOP Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy held a press conference on Tuesday morning just hours before former President Donald Trump’s historic arraignment in federal court.
During his press event outside the Miami Courthouse, Ramaswamy calls on all of the other candidates to sign a declaration pledging to pardon Trump if they are elected.
Ramaswamy also vowed to use campaign funds to sue the Justice Department if they do not comply with his Freedom of Information Act request.
Below is a partial transcript:
So the bottom line is there are two things that matter. One is how are we going to hold the Biden Department of Justice accountable? The first answer is that yesterday I submitted a freedom of information act request, a demand to the Biden Department of Justice demanding what did Biden tell Jack Smith, what did Biden tell Merrick Garland, what did Merrick Garland tell special prosecutor Jack Smith? They’re required within 20 business days to give us an answer about any direct or indirect communications. And the first announcement I want to make today is that if they do not comply with the law in the next 20 business days, then we will sue them in federal courts at our campaign’s expense to get to the bottom of those answers. The news media should be doing this. It is a shame that a competitor to Donald Trump in this election has to do the job of the political news media.
It is a shame it takes a leader outside of the media to stand up. That’s what we’re doing. They now have this freedom of information act request and if they don’t comply within 20 days and they don’t follow the law we’ll see to it in federal court that they do. That brings me to my second announcement that I will make today. This is an announcement of a letter that my campaign has sent to every other campaign in this race, to Mike Pence, to Nikki Haley, to Larry Elder, to RFK junior, to Marianne Williamson, to dougburg um, to perry Johnson and Chris Christie, to ran DeSantis the governor of the state where we are today who is not here today in his own state.
I will tell you that we have sent this letter, I’m happy to announce this is my commitment on January 20th, 2025, if I’m elected the next U.S. president, to pardon Donald Trump for these offenses in this federal case.
And I have challenged – I have demanded that every other candidate in this race either sign this commitment to pardon on January 20th, 2025, or else to explain why they are not.
I think that we need to declare independence from our donor class in the Republican Party. That is why I challenge every one of the other candidates to actually act on their convictions. If you are not going to pardon President Trump on January 20, 2025, you deserve to say why and we’ll hold you accountable just as we are holding the Biden Administration accountable.
WATCH:
Ramaswamy made headlines on Sunday when he used an appearance on CNN to slam the mainstream media ore into CNN host Dana Bash for ignoring the Biden administration’s weaponization of the Department of Justice against a political opponent.
During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Dana Bash, the conversation largely gravitated around Special Counsel Jack Smith charging Trump with 37 counts related to his handling of classified documents.
If he is found guilty on all counts, Trump — who is President Joe Biden’s chief rival in next year’s presidential election — could face decades in prison.
According to the indictment, Trump allegedly showed classified documents to a number of people who did not have the proper security clearances on at least two separate occasions. The DOJ alleges that both instances took place at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
Ramaswamy blasted the indictment as “deeply politicized” and argued that “The top question actually we should be asking is what did [Joe] Biden tell Merrick Garland? What did Merrick Garland tell Jack Smith?”