CNN analyst Van Jones said he was “shaking” watching GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on the debate stage Wednesday night, warning that the country is witnessing “the rise of an American demagogue.”
In a panel discussion on CNN after the fourth GOP primary debate, Jones denounced Ramaswamy’s embrace of conspiracy theories and warned, “That guy is dangerous. That’s dangerous.”
“And the smug, condescending way that he just spews this poison out, is very, very dangerous. Because he won’t stop Trump, but he’s going to outlive Trump by about 50 years,” he said.
“You’re watching the rise of an American demagogue that is a very, very despicable person. And I literally, I was— I was shaking listening to him talk because a lot of people don’t know. That is one step away from Nazi propaganda coming out of his mouth.”
Jones broke down the “great replacement” conspiracy theory that Ramaswamy openly supported during the debate, underscoring the danger that he said that kind of rhetoric poses to the country.
“When those people were saying ‘Jews will not replace us, Jews will not replace us.’ That slogan sits on top of a very sick and twisted view that, if you bring enough people of color here — we are so deficient, we are so stupid, we’re so unwanted — that we will be zombies to fill out the ranks for some Democratic Party agenda that Jewish people are manipulating and driving forward,” he said, explaining the conspiracy theory.
“That leads to violence. That puts at risk Jewish people. That puts at risk people of color. It is wrong,” Jones said.
Earlier that night, Ramaswamy rattled off a list of popular far-right conspiracy theories and asked his fellow debaters why he’s “the only person on this stage at least who can say,” among other false beliefs, that, “’The great replacement theory’ is not some grand right-wing conspiracy theory, but a basic statement of the Democratic party’s platform.”