Vivek Ramaswamy is opposed to students being blacklisted for their views regarding the Israel-Hamas war.”I say this as someone who vehemently disagrees with those Harvard student groups,” he wrote on X.Bill Ackman, who has praised Ramaswamy’s campaign, wants the Harvard letter signatories to be known by employers.
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GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Sunday said it’s “not productive” for companies to go after college students who belong to groups making “dumb political statements,” a debate tied to the Israel-Hamas war that has roiled campuses across the US.
Ramaswamy — a Harvard- and Yale-educated entrepreneur who’s the only millennial contender in the Republican contest — took to X to remark on the Harvard student groups who have been publicly called out after signing on to a letter that held Israel responsible for the deadly terrorist attack by Hamas militants earlier this month.
“The Harvard student groups who co-signed the anti-Israel letter are simple fools,” Ramaswamy wrote. “But it’s not productive for companies to blacklist kids for being members of student groups that make dumb political statements on campus.”
“It’s not great now if companies refuse to hire kids who were part of student groups that once adopted the wrong view on Israel,” he continued. “This isn’t a legal point, it’s a cultural point. I say this as someone who vehemently disagrees with those Harvard student groups.”
The Harvard student groups who co-signed the anti-Israel letter are simple fools. But it’s not productive for companies to blacklist kids for being members of student groups that make dumb political statements on campus. Colleges are spaces for students to experiment with ideas &…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) October 15, 2023
Ramaswamy in his statement also decried the “left-wing cancel culture” that he said led to the persecution of people who wore red hats in support of former President Donald Trump.
He then pivoted back to the ongoing debate on college campuses, arguing that individuals calling for the affected students to be blacklisted “are responding from a place of understandable hurt.”
“[B]ut I’m confident that in the fullness of time, they will agree with me on the wisdom of avoiding these cancel-culture tactics,” he added.
Ramaswamy’s position on the issue is also notable because it thoroughly contrasts with the views of Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager and Harvard alum who throughout 2023 has praised the 38-year-old’s presidential candidacy.
In August, Ackman wrote on X that Ramaswamy had “a remarkably deep understanding of important issues.”
Over the past week, Ackman has been one of the most vocal proponents of not only identifying members of the 34 student groups, but making sure that other business leaders don’t admit them into their ranks in the business world.
“I have been asked by a number of CEOs if Harvard would release a list of the members of each of the Harvard organizations that have issued the letter assigning sole responsibility for Hamas’ heinous acts to Israel, so as to insure that none of us inadvertently hire any of their members,” Ackman wrote on X last week. “If, in fact, their members support the letter they have released, the names of the signatories should be made public so their views are publicly known.”
Last week, a billboard truck drove near Harvard’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and showed the names and images of students who were allegedly affiliated with the organizations that were signatories of the pro-Palestinian letter.
But over the past few days, several students and organizations have distanced themselves from the letter, with some stating that they had not fully read the statement before they signed on to its message.
The Hamas terrorist attack on Israel earlier this month left at least 1,400 people dead in Israel, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s press office.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 2,200 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the conflict.
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