MAGA candidate torn apart for making racist comment

Vivek Ramaswamy, the 2026 Republican candidate for governor in Ohio, is facing heavy criticism after a clip resurfaced on Monday of him making a racist comment to explain his opposition to abortion.

“A Black baby is probably safer…in the inner city of Chicago, than in the womb of his own Black mother,” Ramaswamy said in a clip shared by the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Governors Association and the group Headquarters. The story was first reported by theGrio.

In the clip Ramaswamy added, “And I think that that’s actually a problem, and it’s directly the product of what Margaret Sanger envisioned years ago when setting Planned Parenthood into motion.”

Ramaswamy made these remarks during a 2023 podcast with commentator Adam Coleman. In that conversation, Ramaswamy echoed the unfounded right-wing conspiracy theory which holds Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger created the reproductive rights organization to reduce Black population growth.

“She was handing out birth control pamphlets to women, because she was tired of women dying in childbirth, and when she started doing that work in Lower Manhattan, there were Black leaders in Harlem who were like, ‘Well, wait a minute, Black women up here also need access to care, including contraception,'” Alencia Johnson, a Democratic strategist who worked at Planned Parenthood, told theGrio’s Gerren Keith Gaynor. “The Harlem clinic that the Right likes to weaponize against Planned Parenthood was actually started in partnership with the National Urban League. So, the formation of Planned Parenthood has actually been in partnership with a lot of Black leaders.”

Ramaswamy has himself faced racism, with Salon’s Sophia Tesfaye writing in October that he had been targeted by Trump supporters because of his Indian heritage.

"MAGA-aligned Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor in Ohio, faced similar attacks from the right," Tesfaye wrote. "On Monday, disparaging comments targeting Ramaswamy resurfaced from Paul Ingrassia, Trump's controversial nominee to lead the White House Office of the Special Counsel, who said in January 2024, 'Never trust a chinaman or Indian. NEVER.' After Ingrassia's comments were revealed, at least four Republican senators, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, yanked their support for the nominee, whose confirmation hearing was scheduled for Thursday. Ingrassia withdrew his nomination late Tuesday."

Tesfaye continued, "Ingrassia's messages were part of thousands of leaked texts from over 350 Young Republican operatives in a Telegram group chat that was exposed by Politico, revealing a culture steeped in racist, antisemitic and misogynistic language."

Tesfaye also added that the Young Republicans caught on Telegram making racist comments like those directed against Ramaswamy "weren't anonymous trolls," but instead "held official roles in campaigns, government offices and influential conservative organizations."

She concluded, "Republicans like to pretend that so-called woke liberals are the real racists, but this rhetoric and behavior undermines that notion…. For Indian-Americans in the MAGA movement, even their conservative identity will not shield them."