The Republican primary is by no means a settled matter. Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are still in the top two spots, but Vivek Ramaswamy has long been getting our attention here at Victory Girls.

Ramaswamy is the true outsider in the race, being the only candidate who has never been elected to political office. He is also the youngest candidate in the race, at age 37. Vivek Ramaswamy has a compelling background, is currently edging out Mike Pence for third place in the national GOP primary polls, and continues to make a good impression on the campaign trail. Still, Ramaswamy is a long shot candidate. But it is still so early in the 2024 election cycle that anyone who guarantees you anything is trying to sell something.

That being said, there has already been some pretty ugly and racist commentary regarding Vivek Ramaswamy. Is this a consistent thing that his campaign has had to deal with? Fortunately, no. But CNN reporter Elle Reeve interviewed Ramaswamy right after the Turning Point Action Conference, and had a very odd piece of racism to show him.

Fair warning: Elle Reeve speaks and acts like a tired millennial. And I mean tired. The woman sounds like she overdosed on melatonin. Watching this clip could put you to sleep – at least, until Vivek Ramaswamy speaks up. Apparently, while at the Turning Point Action Conference, Reeve found some Nazi references on post-it notes that had supposedly been left by conference attendees on a giant cut-out of Ramaswamy’s face.

Elle Reeve covered the conservative conference earlier this month in Florida where she interviewed attendees about their thoughts on Ramaswamy’s candidacy. The CNN journalist noted that the conference displayed large photos of every candidate for attendees to write down their thoughts with post-it notes.”

However, some comments for Ramaswamy sign featured antisemitic drawings of the Star of David and “1488” Nazi refences.”

“We have a little bit of the dark side here,” Reeve tells the audience as the camera pans to the defaced sign. “We have a Star of David crossed out that says, ‘soon.” Now that’s a 4chan joke saying there will be another Holocaust. We also have 1488. That is also a Nazi joke. So I got two Nazi jokes here.”

When CNN pointed out the Nazi references, a Turning Point spokesman removed them from the sign. Reeve asked Ramaswamy for his thoughts on the incident later on in a sit down interview.”

“I can’t speak to that particular instance. I’ll tell you my experience in this country. Have I experienced racism? Yes, I have. But I reject the myth that hardship is the same thing as victimhood,” the up and coming GOP presidential candidate told Reeve.”

Reeve, in the interview, hastens to say that of course Ramaswamy isn’t responsible for those post-it notes, but of course that proves her point that “racism still exists.” Now, if you read or listen to Ramaswamy’s answer, he never denies that racism exists – he just doesn’t want to give it oxygen and attention.

So, what is going on here? What was the point of the post-it notes (one much more explicit than the other), and then what was the point of Elle Reeve bringing it up in her interview? I have a few theories.

1) Trolls looking for attention
What, attention-seeking and poorly-behaved people at a political conference??? Why, I’m shocked, SHOCKED, that such a person might have possibly left Nazi messages on a GOP candidate’s image. Such a thing has never happened before! Sorry, my sarcasm meter has broken again. Someone who decided to troll the candidate, the conference, or the media is just as likely an option as the next one…

2) Actual racists leaving a message
Sure, anti-Semitic assholes could have absolutely left those post-it notes. Why on Vivek Ramaswamy’s cut-out photo, though? Really, Nazi “jokes” on the candidate of Indian descent? What would be the point? Is some moron trying to claim that Ramaswamy is an anti-Semite with these post-it notes? Or does someone think that Ramaswamy is secretly Jewish? So much weirdness, so few answers.

3) The post-it notes were planted
By whom, you ask? Well, it sure is convenient that CNN cameras found those post-it notes, and that Elle Reeve was able to inform her audience (all five of them) that these were Nazi references from 4chan. Does she spend a lot of time there? Were those notes placed there just so Elle Reeve could say to Vivek Ramaswamy, who refuses to play the victim card, “nuh uh, racism is like, totally alive and stuff, ’cause I found it on your face at the conference”? We all know that the media would prefer to think of GOP voters as bigoted racists. The popularity of Vivek Ramaswamy, even if he doesn’t win the presidential nomination, is throwing a wrench in their narrative. Are we absolutely 100 percent CERTAIN that those post-it notes weren’t left on Ramaswamy’s photo to reinforce the media’s preferred sterotype? That even if GOP voters find Ramaswamy appealing and he’s gaining support, they’re all just really racists anyway, so their support for Vivek Ramaswamy is just a cover for their true racism, and Ramaswamy is just being played by the GOP and doesn’t realize it? It’s two stupid (and one very obscure reference) post-it notes, and yet those two post-it notes get the most attention from Elle Reeve. I don’t believe in coincidence when the media is involved.

So, who do you, dear reader, think put those post-it notes there? All I know is that as Vivek Ramaswamy rises in the polls, the target on his back gets larger. He is wrecking the media’s narrative that the Republican party is full of bigots who would never support or elect a black or brown candidate. Huh – I wonder who the bigots truly are here.

Featured image: Vivek Ramaswamy by Gage Skidmore, cropped, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)