Vivek Ramaswamy compares Trump to George Washington at Wisconsin rally
Vivek Ramaswamy compared Donald Trump to America's first President George Washington and claimed the 2024 election is a '1776 moment.' The former 2024 contender made a surprise appearance at former President Trump's rally in Racine, Wisconsin on Tuesday where he made the comments.
He claimed that Trump is being persecuted like the Founding Fathers were by Britain and called for supporters to come out in November to cast their ballot for the former president. Ramaswamy also predicted that President Joe Biden might not end up being the 2024 candidate for Democrats in November.
'Dig deep and ask yourself why it is that our founding fathers made the sacrifices they did 250 years ago,' Ramaswamy said to the riled up crowd. '56 men signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. We don't often ask what became of them.' He then explained: 'I'm going to tell you what happened to them; 12 of them had their homes ransacked by the British and burned down to the ground, five of them were captured by the British and tortured to their deaths, nine of them died in the Revolutionary war, three more of them had their own kids die in the Revolutionary War, many of them died bankrupt because they had their own private property seized before their deaths.'
'They made those sacrifices in 1776 and I believe today it's a 1776 moment in 2024 and Donald Trump is the George Washington of our moment,' the biotech entrepreneur-turned-politician went on. About a half hour before arriving at the rally location at Racine Festival Park, Ramaswamy wrote on X: 'Just landed in Wisconsin. Critical state this year. Headed to rally in Racine shortly. Should be fun.'
Thousands come out for the rally just 30 miles south of Milwaukee. At the top of his remarks, Ramaswamy said he wouldn't focus on slamming President Biden's record. 'I'm not going to sit here railing against Joe Biden because chances are, let's be honest, he might not be the nominee that we're running against,' he claimed.
Some Trump supporters took naps on the sidewalk on Tuesday waiting for their shot to be one of the first few inside. Hundreds showed up in the early morning hours for the rally just days after Trump reportedly called Milwaukee a 'horrible city' during a meeting with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill last week.
One rally goer outside the Racine Festival Park showed off a thigh tattoo reading 'Made in America' below a portrait of Trump. Several other supporters donned black and prison orange t-shirts with the ex-president's Georgia mugshot and messages encouraging Trump to 'Never Surrender' despite the four criminal cases against him. The Wisconsin rally comes less than a month after a jury in Manhattan found Trump guilty of 34 felony charges for falsification of business records related to a hush money payment made to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump is set to return to Wisconsin next month for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee where he is expected to officially become the party's nominee for 2024. Wisconsin is a vital battleground in November and one of the states critical to winning the White House in 2024. Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by just 0.7 percent. But the state swung blue in 2020 for President Joe Biden by a margin of 0.6 percent.
'Thousands of Wisconsinites are going to gather in Racine to show their support for President Donald J. Trump,' Republican National Committee (RNC) Spokesperson Jacob Fischer said in a statement ahead of Trump's arrival. 'In less than one month, tens of thousands will gather in Wisconsin as President Trump formally accepts the Republican nomination,' he added. 'His America First agenda will end Joe Biden's crippling inflation, sky-high prices, the border crisis, and rampant crime, Making America Great Again.'
Some outcry ensued after Trump called Milwaukee a 'horrible city' during a meeting with GOP lawmakers in Washington, D.C. last Thursday. But Trump's campaign, as well as many of those in the Capitol Hill Club event with the ex-president claim the comment was taken out of context by media. 'In a desperate attempt to get likes, Fake News Jake Sherman—who wasn't even in the room—falsely claimed that President Trump called Milwaukee a 'horrible city.' It's a total lie,' Trump's Deputy Communications Director Dylan Johnson wrote. He added: 'President Trump was explicitly referring to the problems in Milwaukee, specifically violent crime and voter fraud.'
Trump still faces three more cases with dozens more felony charges against him in Georgia, Washington D.C. and Florida. As temperatures rose to the high 80s before Trump's arrival in Wisconsin on Tuesday, a video played of the former president encouraging his supporters to 'make a plan' to vote if they aren't able to make it out on Election Day in November. After years of decrying the fraud that surrounds mail-in voting, Trump is now pressing his base to embrace the tool in order to 'swamp' Democrats in the 2024 election. 'Keep your eyes open because these people want to cheat,' Trump said in the clip played to the trickling-in audience.
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