Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy made the rounds on the Sunday morning talk shows this week. And his appearances delivered some truly wild moments.

In a pair of interviews with Dana Bash on CNN and Chuck Todd on NBC, the businessman — whose upstart candidacy made him the target of his rivals at Wednesday night’s debate — confronted both hosts, made outrageous claims, and produced a series of bizarre moments which dominated the headlines Sunday morning.

Here are the highlights:

1. Bash Battles Ramaswamy for Comparing Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) to a “Modern Grand Wizard” of the KKK

The CNN anchor pressed Ramaswamy about comments at a recent event — in which he claimed Pressley spoke “the words of the modern grand wizards of the modern KKK” back in 2019 when she said, “We don’t want any more black faces that don’t want to be a black voice. We don’t want any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice.”

“How, in any way, are the views you’re talking about comparable to the views and atrocities committed by the KKK?” Bash asked.

“What I said is the grand wizards of the KKK would be proud of what they would hear her say,” Ramaswamy replied. “Because there’s nothing more racist than saying that your skin color predicts something about the content of your viewpoints or your ideas.”

“You didn’t just say they would be proud,” Bash said, firing back.. “You said these are the words of the modern grand wizards of the modern KKK.”

2. Ramaswamy Confronted With Comment About White Supremacists Being as Rare a Unicorns

There was another recent comment about race on which Bash confronted Ramaswamy. The CNN anchor played a remark from Friday in which Ramaswamy said, “I’m sure the bogeyman white supremacist exists somewhere in America, but I’ve never met him. Never seen one. Never met one in my life. Maybe I’ll meet a unicorn sooner. And maybe those exist too.”

The presidential candidate responded by arguing most present-day racism in America “has come from the modern left.”

3. Ramaswamy Pressed on Why He’s Running for President, Given He Thinks Trump was the Best President of the 21st Century

Ramaswamy made the claim, at Wednesday night’s debate, that he believes former President Donald Trump was the best president of the 21st century.

Given that position, Chuck Todd asked Ramaswamy an entirely logical question.

“If you believe Donald Trump is the greatest president of the 21st century … why are you running against him?”

Ramaswamy was vague in his reply — saying “I believe I can take the America First agenda even further than Donald Trump did,” but failing to elaborate beyond some vague claims about his electability.

4. Ramaswamy Tries to Sidestep Accusation that He Called Trump a ‘Sore Loser’

The upstart candidate’s constantly shifting positions have drawn more scrutiny as he’s risen in the polls. And indeed, Todd confronted Ramaswamy on a comment which seemed to be all about Donald Trump.

“‘No one likes a sore loser,'” Todd said, quoting from Ramaswamy’s book, published just last yer. “‘That’s one of the worst victim complexes of all.’ Are you referring to Donald Trump?”

“I referred in that chapter both to Stacey Abrams and to Donald Trump,” Ramaswamy replied.

But Todd confronted the candidate with another of his own quotes:

“The Republican Party seems to be moving towards the position that any races it wins are legitimate and any it loses were stolen. It’s just the preferred conservative brand of victimhood, a knee-jerk kind of sore losing more common to playgrounds than great republics.”

“Chuck, I stand by everything I said,” Ramaswamy replied. ?That was a book where 11 of the 12 chapters were dedicated to a lot of left-wing victimhood in this country. But it would have been incomplete for me not to call out my own tribe. And my point is I don’t want to see this in terms of red versus blue.:

5. Ramaswamy Makes an Utterly Outrageous Claim About the Scope of Mike Pence’s Powers on Jan. 6

Finally, the topper. Ramaswamy was confronted with a question he did not answer at Wednesday night’s debate — whether he believed former Vice President Mike Pence’s actions on Jan. 6 were right.

“I would have done it very differently,” Ramaswamy said. “I think that there was a historic opportunity that he missed to reunite this country in that window. What I would have said is, ‘This is a moment for a true national consensus,’ where there’s two elements of what’s required for a functioning democracy in America. One is secure elections, and the second is a peaceful transfer of power. When those things come into conflict, that’s an opportunity for heroism. Here’s what I would have said, ‘We need single-day voting on Election Day. We need paper ballots, and we need government-issued ID matching the voter file. And if we achieve that, then we have achieved victory, and we should not have any further complaint about election integrity.'”

“So what would you have done as Mike Pence?” Todd asked.

Ramaswamy replied with an outrageous claim vastly overstating the powers of the vice presidency — arguing Pence should have unilaterally overturned the election and implemented nationwide voting reform.

“So, in my capacity as president of the Senate, I would have led through that level of reform, then, on that condition, certified the election results, served it up to the president, President Trump then, to sign that into law, and on January 7th, declared the reelection campaign pursuant to a free and fair election,” Ramaswamy said. “I think that was a missed opportunity.”

Watch above, via CNN and NBC.

The post 5 Wildest Moments of Vivek Ramaswamy’s Sunday Show Blitz – Including the Bonkers Claim Pence Could’ve Implemented Nationwide Voting Reforms on Jan. 6 first appeared on Mediaite.

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