To give us a glimpse into what kind of president candidate Vivek Ramaswamy would make, after a woman accidentally backed into his campaign's parked car outside of an Iowa diner, the paranoid Republican — without proof — immediately blamed it on angry protestors. But police disagree, stating, "Our investigation has revealed no evidence to substantiate that information."
In fact, according to police (see statement below, posted by Brianne Pfannenstiel), a 22-year-old woman — who had nothing to do with a group of peaceful protestors during a Ramaswamy event — had just eaten lunch at a deli in the city of Grinell when she lightly bumped into the back of a Ford Expedition that Ramaswamy's staff had rented.
But to hear the hot-headed candidate describe it, one would think a couple of mad berserkers had intentionally crushed the SUV, explaining on X that he was speaking to protestors when "two of them then got into their car & rammed it into ours. Those two should be held accountable, but the rest of the peaceful protestors shouldn't be tarred by the behavior of two bad actors."
And even after the police investigation found the driver to be unconnected to the protestors and even the event, Ramaswamy's campaign blamed the driver for purposely hitting the car.
From Des Moines Register:
The Ramaswamy campaign blamed the collision on protesters who they said were angry about Ramaswamy's remarks on aid for Ukraine, saying they yelled and swore at the presidential candidate before jumping into a vehicle, ramming the campaign car and speeding off.
"Things clearly escalated," Ramaswamy spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said. "(Ramaswamy) is used to dealing with protesters and handled it very calmly. So he was maybe a little more calm about it than the rest of us."
But that's not what really happened, according to the Grinnell Police Department's investigation. …
"(The driver) stated she was not in the area to protest, she did not know who the vehicle she struck belonged to, she did not intentionally back into the vehicle, and she did not flee the scene of the accident," according to the [Grinell Police Department] release.
The Ramaswamy campaign, asked by the Des Moines Register at a campaign event Thursday evening to respond to the police's investigation, stood by their initial report that it was protesters who hit the campaign's vehicle.
Phew, thank goodness nobody was killed in the terrifying incident in which both vehicles were left with "minor damage."
