大多数候选人在第一次共和党初选辩论说前副总统迈克·彭斯做了正确的事情，他确认了2020年的选举结果，同时也暗示现在是时候越过1月6日了。然而，这个问题并没有向Vivek Ramaswamy提出，他一直强烈谴责所谓的政府谎言，他说这些谎言加剧了前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)及其在1月6日国会大厦袭击事件中的作用的国家分裂。
在周日美国全国广播公司(NBC)的“会见新闻界”(Meet the Press)的一次有争议的采访中，拉马斯瓦米回应了他早些时候对《国家评论》(National Review)发表的声明，称彭斯在认证2020年总统选举结果时错过了“一个团结这个国家的历史性机会”。他在节目中露面时还表示，如果他处于彭斯的位置，他会在1月7日彭斯证明拜登获胜的那一天实施他的投票改革提案，然后“宣布竞选连任”并证明结果。
他的提议是:通过纸质选票进行单日投票，需要政府颁发的“与选民档案相符”的身份证
2023年8月23日，在威斯康星州密尔沃基的Fiserv论坛上，企业家兼作家Vivek Ramaswamy在参加第一次共和党总统初选辩论时做手势。
kamil Krzaczynski/法新社
“如果我们做到了这一点，那么我们就取得了胜利，我们不应该再对选举的完整性有任何抱怨，”他说。
例如，拉马斯瓦米曾表示，他将把缺席投票的有限便利扩大到残疾人，但他“不认为这是创造一个多周投票过程的借口，这种投票收集和邮寄投票破坏了公众对我们选举的信任，”他最近在爱荷华州佩拉的一次竞选活动中告诉记者。
自2021年以来，拉马斯瓦米对1月6日的看法以及唐纳德·特朗普在其中的作用已经发生了变化。总统候选人曾称特朗普的当天的行动在他的第二本书《受害者之国》中，他批评了“选举被偷”的说法。
“这是民主黑暗的一天。上次选举的失败者拒绝承认竞选，声称选举被盗，从忠诚的支持者那里筹集了数亿美元，并正在考虑再次竞选行政职位，”他在书中写道。“我指的当然是唐纳德·特朗普。”
现在，两年半后，拉马斯瓦米似乎对这些说法给予了更多的信任，专注于国会大厦骚乱后产生的公众不信任，并坚持他的承诺，即赦免特朗普和那些现在面临与那一天有关的联邦指控的人，以“推动国家前进”，他在8月中旬与NewsNation一起在市政厅直播时说。
拉马斯瓦米曾表示，他会在1月6日做出与特朗普不同的决定，但不认为特朗普的行为是犯罪，他告诉ABC新闻谴责特朗普骚乱发生后的几天里，人们都在谈论他如何处理1月6日的事件。
“我会做什么?...从那天开始，在同样的情况下，我会说，一旦有人暴力接近国会大厦，‘退下’，”他在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时说。
“在抗议者变得暴力时袖手旁观，我认为，是一个严重的领导错误，”他补充道，同时重申，“我不认为唐纳德·特朗普是1月6日的原因。”
他在周日新闻节目中说，尽管他说他坚持自己的写作，坚持认为他没有看到大规模选票欺诈的证据，但他将自己的新观点部分归因于对“亨特·拜登笔记本电脑故事的真相”的怀疑。然而，不变的是拉马斯瓦米的主张，即更高的权力正在发挥作用，无论是大型技术和审查，如他在2021年《华尔街日报》的一篇观点文章中所写的，还是他所谓的“行政国家”，他定义为非官方的第四个影子政府部门，对政治和公民行动具有影响力。
然而，拉马斯瓦米观点的所谓细微差别似乎并不总是像他所希望的那样出现，这一点在爱荷华州牛顿市的竞选活动在拉马斯瓦米回答了一个关于如何恢复对美国投票系统的信心的问题后，由于拜登2020年战胜特朗普的有效性正在进行辩论。
“如此多的共和党人对我们的投票系统失去了信心。他们说他们不会去投票，因为这无关紧要。我们要如何改变这种情况?”一位选民问道。
拉马斯瓦米在解释他的提议时，要求与会者和他一起“放弃我们对选票欺诈或选举诚信的投诉”，如果该提议得以实施的话。尽管许多人拍手叫好，但另一位选民称他的立场“令人不快”。
“我只想说实话，你的回答有点冒犯。我们……美利坚合众国有最安全的选举，”她断言。"我认为你从来没有真正参与过选举。"
拉马斯瓦米周五告诉美国广播公司新闻，他认为他的投票改革提议是两党努力解决该国压力点的适当共同点。在艾奥瓦州牛顿事件后，美国广播公司新闻部(ABC News)在会见一群媒体时，问他是否认为美国的选举是安全的，以及特朗普或对他的起诉是否影响了公众对选举安全的看法，拉马斯瓦米说:“我认为起诉动摇了公众对我们机构的信任，更广泛地说，对我们政府的信任，到了一个非常糟糕的地步。”
他说:“我已经提出了一个非常实际、非常务实、而且我相信没有争议的方法来恢复公众的信任。”
How Vivek Ramaswamy has changed his characterization of Jan. 6
Most candidates at the firstGOP primary debatesaid former Vice President Mike Pence did the right thing by certifying the 2020 election results while also suggesting it's time to move past Jan. 6. The question was not posed to Vivek Ramaswamy though, who has been vocal in his condemnation of alleged government lies that he says have fueled national division around former President Donald Trump and his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
In a contentious interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Ramaswamy echoed earlier statements he made to the National Review by saying Pence missed “a historic opportunity … to unite this county” when he certified the results of the 2020 presidential election. During his appearance on the show, he also said that if he had been in Pence’s position, he would have implemented his voting reform proposal by Jan. 7, the day Pence certified Biden's win, before “declaring a reelection campaign” and certifying results.
His proposal: single-day voting via paper ballots requiring a government-issued I.D. "matching the voter file.”
"If we achieve that, then we have achieved victory, and we should not have any further complaint about election integrity,” he said.
Ramaswamy has said that he would extend limited accommodations for absentee voting to people with disabilities, for example, but he does “not think that is an excuse for creating [a] multi-week voting processes with ballot harvesting, and mail-in voting that undermines public trust in our elections,” he told reporters recently during a campaign stop in Pella, Iowa.
Ramaswamy’s views on Jan. 6 and Donald Trump’s role in it have evolved since 2021. The presidential candidate once called Trump’sactions on the day“downright abhorrent” and criticized “stolen election” claims in his second book, “Nation of Victims.”
"It was a dark day for democracy. The loser of the last election refused to concede the race, claimed the election was stolen, raised hundreds of millions of dollars from loyal supporters, and is considering running for executive office again,” he wrote in the book. "I'm referring, of course, to Donald Trump."
Now, two and half years later, Ramaswamy seems to give the claims slightly more credit, focusing on public distrust stemming from the aftermath of the riot at the Capitol and standing on his commitment to pardon Trump and those now facing federal charges related to that day to “move the country forward," he said in a live town hall with NewsNation in mid-August.
Ramaswamy, who has said that he would have made different decisions than Trump on Jan. 6 but does not consider Trump’s actions criminal, told ABC News that his commentscondemning Trumpin the days after the riot were about how he handled Jan. 6.
"What I would have done? ... Starting that day under the same circumstances, I would have said, as soon as there are people violently approaching the Capitol, 'Stand down,’” he said in an interview with ABC News.
"Standing by while protesters turned violent, I think, was a bad mistake of leadership," he added while reiterating, "I don't think Donald Trump was the cause of Jan. 6."
Although he says he stands by his writings, maintaining as he wrote a year ago that he has not seen evidence of mass ballot fraud, he attributes his new views in part to skepticism over “the truth about the Hunter Biden laptop story,” he said on the Sunday news program. What has remained the same, however, is Ramaswamy's assertion that higher powers are at play, whether it be Big Tech and censorship, as he wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece in 2021, or what he calls the “administrative state,” which he defines as an unofficial fourth shadow branch of government that has influence over political and civic action.
The supposed nuance of Ramaswamy's views, however, does not always appear to come across as he may hope, something that played out in real-time at acampaign event in Newton, Iowa, after Ramaswamy answered a question about how to restore faith in the U.S. voting system due to ongoing debate over the validity of Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump.
“So many Republicans have lost faith in our voting system. And they say they're not going to vote because it doesn't matter. How are we going to change that?” one voter asked.
Explaining his proposal, Ramaswamy asked that attendees join him in “dropping our complaints about ballot fraud or election integrity” if it were to be enacted. Though many applauded, another voter called his stance “offensive.”
“I just want to be honest, and your answer was slightly offensive. We … the United States of America has the most secure elections,” she asserted. “I don't think you've ever actually worked an election.”
Ramaswamy told ABC News on Friday that he sees his voting reform proposition as an appropriate common ground for bipartisan efforts to resolve a pressure point in the country. Asked by ABC News as he met with a group of press after the Newton, Iowa event later if he thinks the U.S. has secure elections and if Trump or the indictments against him have affected public opinion of election security, Ramaswamy said: “I think the indictments have shaken public trust in our institutions, in our government more generally, to a pretty bad place.”
“I've laid out a very practical, a deeply pragmatic, and I believe noncontroversial approach to restore that public trust," he said.
