Fact checking Vivek Ramaswamy’s CNN town hall in Iowa

By CNN Staff

(CNN) — GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy participated in a CNN town hall Wednesday in Iowa ahead of the state’s caucuses next month.

The entrepreneur made some claims that deserve closer scrutiny.

A false claim that police rolled ‘out the red carpet’ on January 6

Ramaswamy doubled down on his previous comments that the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol was an “inside job,” adding that there is evidence of police “rolling out the red carpet” for rioters and inviting them in.

Facts First: Ramaswamy’s claim that the rioters were invited into the Capitol is false. About 140 police officers were assaulted while trying to stop the mob from breaching the Capitol. There were hours-long battles between police and rioters near some entrances. CNN obtained footage from police body-worn cameras showing how dozens of officers engaged in hand-to-hand combat with rioters in a desperate effort to keep them out of the building.

There are plenty of instances where rioters waltzed into the Capitol without a fight, but only after they had stormed past barricades and, in some cases, even stepped through broken windows. In some areas, police were so outnumbered by the mob that they retreated, stood aside or tried to politely engage with rioters to de-escalate the situation rather than fighting or making arrests, but that is clearly not the same as welcoming rioters into the building.

From CNN’s Marshall Cohen and Kaanita Iyer 

A false claim about ‘government entrapment’ on January 6

Ramaswamy reiterated his belief that January 6 was an instance of “government entrapment,” claiming as evidence that “we know there were federal law enforcement agents in that field.”

Facts First: FBI Director Christopher Wray, a lifelong Republican appointed by Trump, has repeatedly rejected claims that federal law enforcement agents were in any way responsible for the violence that unfolded at the Capitol on January 6.

In July, Wray told Congress: “This notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous and is a disservice to our brave, hardworking, dedicated men and women.”

And just last month, Wray was once again asked about alleged federal involvement in January 6 and pushed back strongly saying, “If you are asking whether the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and/or agents, the answer is emphatically not. No. It was not violence orchestrated by FBI sources or agents.”

However, Wray has resisted attempts by GOP lawmakers to provide an exact number when asked how many government agents were in the crowd on January 6, if any.

The conspiracy theory that the FBI orchestrated the attack emerged in summer 2021 in a series of articles and TV segments from pro-Trump news outlets. The false and self-serving narrative claims the US government sent undercover FBI agents to trigger the violence so they could frame Trump supporters and make Trump look bad.

The supposed evidence backing up the theory is nothing more than a conspiratorial web of unproven claims, half-truths and inaccurate drivel from Trump supporters who have aggressively tried to absolve him of responsibility for the deadly assault that day.

About 850 rioters have been convicted of crimes stemming from January 6, according to the Justice Department. Most of them pleaded guilty, and many acknowledged that they were at the Capitol because they supported Trump.

Ramaswamy has a history of peddling disinformation about January 6, including at last week’s GOP debate, where he called the insurrection an “inside job.” You can read CNN’s previous fact check of that here.

From CNN’s Tara Subramaniam and Marshall Cohen

A claim on the kidnapping case involving Michigan’s governor

To back up his false assertion that government agents entrapped Trump supporters on January 6, Ramaswamy pointed to the kidnapping case involving Michigan Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.

He repeatedly said three defendants were acquitted because they were entrapped.

Facts First: As CNN’s Abby Phillip pointed out during the town hall, those numbers only tell part of the story. Nine other men charged in the plot were ultimately convicted.

There were federal and state charges stemming from the kidnapping plot against a total of 14 defendants. According to past CNN reporting, nine were convicted either by pleading guilty or at trial, and five were acquitted.

Testimony from the cases established that undercover FBI agents played a role in the plan, though that is a common tactic in investigations into criminal groups and gangs. Some of the defendants raised an entrapment defense at trial.

There were indeed split verdicts, but more were convicted than acquitted.

From CNN’s Marshall Cohen

A misleading claim about the Fed and inequality

When asked about growing inequality between the richest Americans and the middle class, Ramaswamy claimed the Federal Reserve’s policies over the past two decades were to blame.

He implied that the Fed’s policies of keeping interest rates relatively low over a majority of that period disproportionately benefited the wealthy, saying the central bank has been “raining money from on high, like manna from heaven” and that “it’s really flowed down through the top 1%.”

Facts First: This is misleading. While higher-income Americans may have stood to benefit from lower interest rates more than middle-class and lower-income Americans, the latter may also have been able to reap some benefits.  

For instance, when the Fed slashed interest rates to near-zero levels to stimulate the economy — after the pandemic brought a surge in unemployment — many Americans were able to refinance their mortgages and lock in record low rates.

From CNN’s Elisabeth Buchwald

A claim about on wages and inflation

Asked about the growth in income inequality, Ramaswamy said the American Dream is not alive and well right now.

“Prices are going up. Interest rates, including mortgage rates to buy your home, are going up. But wages have remained flat,” he said.

Facts First: While there are several government measures of wage growth, at least two main reports show that this is not true. Wage growth now outpaces inflation.

In November, workers’ real average weekly earnings grew on an annual basis by 0.5%, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report, which looks at inflation-adjusted earnings.

That means that wage growth outpaced inflation. It turned positive in June for the first time in 26 months.

Likewise, the bureau’s Employment Cost Index showed that inflation-adjusted wages and salaries for civilian workers increased 0.9% for the 12 months ending September 2023, the most recent data available. It also first turned positive in June.

The quarterly index tracks changes in employers’ labor costs for wages and salaries but is not subject to the same distortions as other measures, such as average hourly earnings, because it keeps the composition of the workforce constant.

From CNN’s Tami Luhby

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.