TRAINWRECK: Ramaswamy Repeatedly Interrupts Abby Phillip While Standing by Claim January 6 Was an ‘Inside Job’ During CNN Town Hall

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy doubled down on his claim that federal agents helped perpetrate the Capitol riot during his CNN town hall on Wednesday night.

Defenders of former President Donald Trump have long downplayed the violence on that day. Some have even suggested it was orchestrated by the deep state to help undermine Trump.

Like all non-Trump candidates in the GOP presidential field, Ramaswamy is far behind the former president, whom he has avoided criticizing on the campaign trail. Through four primary debates – which Trump has boycotted – Ramaswamy has established himself as the field’s preeminent mudslinger, or, in Chris Christie’s words, “the obnoxious blowhard in America.”

In the fourth debate, Ramaswamy called Jan. 6 “an inside job.” Moderator Abby Phillip decided to ask the candidate about the comment. Quite predictably, he doubled down:

PHILLIP: Let me ask you about something you said last week in the debate. You used the phrase “inside job” to describe what happened on January 6th. The next day, capitol rioter Alan Hostetter highlighted your comments at his sentencing. He is going to prison for 11 years. Hostetter threatened members of Congress. He brought a hatchet, knives, pepper spray, stun batons, tactical gear to the U.S. Capitol. Are you concerned that a convicted felon like that is now promoting your comments in court?

RAMASWAMY: So here’s my concern, Abby. And I want to tell you guys where I’m at. If you had told me, it’s close to three years ago that January 6th, 2021, happened, if you told me three years ago, back when I was a biotech CEO, not steeped in this world, I was just consuming passive media, but was focused on my world of developing medicines. If you had told me that January 6th was in any way an inside job, the subject of government entrapment. I would’ve told you that was crazy talk. Fringe conspiracy theory. Nonsense.

I can tell you now, having gone somewhat deep in this, it’s not. I mean, the reality is this. We do have a government first of all, we have to acknowledge that has lied to us systematically over the last several years about the origin of Covid-19, about the Hunter Biden laptop that we were told was false by 51 CIA experts and otherwise, before we now know that it was true. You could go straight down the list, the Trump-Russia disinformation collusion hoax, all of it. Now we come to January 6th. The reality is we know that there were federal law enforcement agents in that field. We don’t know how many. I think it’s shameful.

PHILLIP: Mr. Ramaswamy–

RAMASWAMY: If I may finish–

PHILLIP: I’m going to I’m going to go ahead and interrupt you here because–

RAMASWAMY: I know the establishment doesn’t approve of this. I know this, but we should be able to talk about this. This is important to talk about.

[AUDIENCE APPLAUDS]

[CROSSTALK]

PHILLIP: You’re saying that there were federal agents on January 6th. There’s no evidence there were federal agents in the crowd on January 6th.

RAMASWAMY: So why, before Congress, when pressed on what the number was, they didn’t say there were none?

PHILLIP: So, you’re saying that–

RAMASWAMY: We’ve seen multiple informants suggesting that there were. We know people who were FBI informants.

PHILLIP: Is there any evidence–

[CROSSTALK]

The “conversation” continued in this fashion until Phillip moved on to another topic.

This wasn’t the first run-in between the two. Last month Ramaswamy turned in a condescending performance while discussing foreign policy with the CNN host.

CNN’s Oliver Darcy criticized the decision to host Ramaswamy for a town hall on the network. Writing in the Reliable Sources newsletter on Wednesday, he accused his employer of “helping to legitimize the dishonest GOP presidential hopeful who has spewed dangerous lies and injected poison into the national discourse at every chance.”

Watch above via CNN.