DES MOINES, Iowa — Big tech companies are “going after” a pair of populist presidential candidates — Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — because they threaten to upend the political establishment, Ramaswamy told Breitbart News.
The 37-year-old entrepreneur announced that LinkedIn “locked” him out of his account late last month for what the company now claims was an “error.” However, speaking with Breitbart News at Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-IA) annual Roast and Ride in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, Ramaswamy contended the Microsoft-owned company’s claim was a “lie.”
Robert Kennedy Jr. speaks hundreds gather at Times Square to protest vaccination mandate during “Freedom Rally” in New York City on October 16, 2021. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“The fact that they’re describing it as an ‘error’ is a lie,” he said. “I initially thought it was a technical error. When my team reached out, what we ended up getting was … back and forth of multiple emails laying out the very specific quotes from videos that I had posted relating to fossil fuels being a requirement for human prosperity, relating to [President Joe] Biden’s ties to China, relating to if the climate movement was about the climate, then they would pay attention to carbon emissions in places like China.”
“They specifically specified those statements as violating their policies on hate speech, misinformation, and violence,” he added. “And so the way I look at this is … I stand my ground — as you know this about me — whether it’s Chuck Todd on Meet the Press or whether it’s Don Lemon on CNN, I go to the other side’s turf, I hold my ground, and I win. I did that with LinkedIn here.”
After Ramaswamy posted the email back and forth to his Twitter account, a LinkedIn spokesperson told Breitbart News in a written statement, “The account was restricted in error and it’s now back up.”
Kennedy, the son of late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of late President John F. Kennedy, tweeted on Thursday that when his team attempted to use his official campaign website email to create an account on the Meta-owned platform Instagram, they received “an automatic 180-day ban.”
“To silence a major political candidate is profoundly undemocratic,” Kennedy wrote in a follow-up tweet. “Social media is the modern equivalent of the town square. How can democracy function if only some candidates have access to it?”
To silence a major political candidate is profoundly undemocratic. Social media is the modern equivalent of the town square. How can democracy function if only some candidates have access to it?
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 2, 2023
Kennedy also noted that his personal account touting nearly a million followers, “was banned years ago.” Notably, the candidate has long been a staunch critic of vaccines.
Ramaswamy said Saturday, “They’re going after [Kennedy] for the same reasons they’re coming after me. We threaten the establishment, but I’m not going to back down.”
However, this is just the start of “election interference” at the hands of “Big Tech,” Ramaswamy forecasts, noting, “That was just the first shots that were fired.”
Last month, Ramaswamy identified Kennedy, a Democrat with a unique amount of crossover appeal, as a potential running mate if he becomes the GOP nominee while speaking with WMUR Political Director Adam Sexton.
Ramaswamy also stated Saturday that President Joe Biden is a “puppet” for the “managerial industrial complex” in Washington, DC, who see his “physical and mental deficits” as “a feature” rather than “a bug.”