Vivek Ramaswamy's Car Crash Controversy, Explained
Beyond Vivek Ramaswamy's rivalry with Nikki Haley, the newcomer's 2024 presidential campaign has raised quite a few eyebrows. In October 2023, the GOP hopeful claimed he had a showdown with rowdy protesters while making the rounds in Iowa. However, the police's version of events took a serious detour from Ramaswamy's script. According to his team, two protesters were throwing verbal punches at the Republican candidate over his comments against aid for Ukraine, per Associated Press.
Allegedly, the protesters then jumped into their car and rammed it against Ramaswamy's unoccupied campaign car before fleeing the scene. His team reported the incident to the police, stating that no one was injured during the ordeal (via HuffPost). In response to these reports, police said they arrived at a coffee shop in Grinnell, Iowa. The driver, a 22-year-old woman, told officials that she had accidentally hit Ramaswamy's vehicle while backing out of a parking spot. While the woman was issued a summons for the traffic violation, police maintained that the accident had no connection to protesting actions, per a media release posted on Facebook.
Despite the corroborated police story, Ramaswamy and his campaign team maintained that the minor collision was indeed a targeted attack. Ramaswamy's spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, told the Associated Press: "Prior to the protestors ramming their car they continually laid on the horn, flipped staff off and screamed expletives (it appeared in efforts to create commotion.)" In the face of conflicting accounts, Ramaswamy's latest political saga became quite the head-scratcher.
The alleged assailants were college students
Often active on social media, Vivek Ramaswamy has quite the "Twitter fingers," and was even slammed for joining TikTok. In response to the accident in October 2023, he quickly took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. He responded to a thread shared by Daily Mail journalist, Katelyn Caralle. The photos showcased the scene of the accident, in which Ramaswamy's car sustained minor scratches. Caralle captioned the images: "Two protesters, aged 22 and 26, rammed their vehicle into @VivekGRamaswamy's car as he visited Saints Rest Coffee House in Grinnell, Iowa on Thursday. The 2024 presidential hopeful is not hurt and was not in the car at the time of the incident."
In a video also shared by Caralle, Ramaswamy is seen going back and forth with protestors. "Had a civil exchange with protestors today, right before two of them then got into their car & rammed it into ours," he tweeted. "Those two should be held accountable, but the rest of the peaceful protestors shouldn't be tarred by the behavior of two bad actors."
The woman who hit Ramaswamy's car was eventually identified as Celia Meagher, a college student at the nearby Grinnell College. In an interview with the college newspaper The Scarlet & Black, Meagher claimed that she had no connection to the dissenters. The second person in her car, Nic Grofsorean, backed up these claims: "It was truly just an accident. We were completely unaffiliated with the protestors."
Ramaswamy urged supporters to donate after the accident
Following Vivek Ramaswamy's tweet, several media outlets picked up the story. Fox News reported the accident as a "hit-and-run," and until the Grinnell police released their media statement, other news outlets ran with the narrative. Celia Meagher clarified that after the crash, she and Nic Grofsorean patiently awaited the arrival of the police, and cooperated during the process (per The Scarlet & Black). Tricia McLaughlin, Ramaswamy's spokesperson, responded to the allegations of conflicting narratives and false headlines.
McLaughlin informed The Scarlet & Black that she never said the accident was a hit-and-run and deflected blame for the misinformation being disseminated. Once police cleared up that the two college students involved in the crash had no relation to protesters, Ramaswamy and his team hit back once again. On X, Laughlin shared a clip that showed a car that was allegedly Meagher's backing out of the parking space, as the driver held up a middle finger. Laughlin wrote that the driver was yelling profanities right before hitting their campaign car.
Ramaswamy once again tweeted in response: "Suppose a guy wearing a MAGA hat is standing amongst protestors at a Democrat presidential candidate's event ... I'm sure they'd be just as eager to call it an unrelated accident, right?" According to HuffPost, the presidential hopeful later sent out a fundraising email. In the email, Ramaswamy urged his supporters to stand for free speech by donating to his campaign.