After Standout Debate Performance, Vivek Ramaswamy Hits Back Following Ann Coulter’s Racist Attack

Right-wing media pundit Ann Coulter has received backlash from both conservatives and liberals for racist remarks she made about former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, two Indian Americans campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination.

Ramaswamy gave an energetic – some say rude – performance at the debate and ended up as the most googled person that night.

During Wednesday’s debate, Coulter referred to the exchange between Haley and Ramaswamy as “Hindu business.”

Nikki and Vivek are involved in some Hindu business, it seems. Not our fight.

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) August 24, 2023

In response, Ramaswamy’s senior advisor and communications director, Tricia McLaughlin, said, “Ann can tweet whatever she wants to. Vivek shares and lives by the same Judeo-Christian values that this nation was founded on.”

Ramaswamy is Hindu, while Haley grew up in a Sikh family and converted to Christianity.

However, the dialogue between the two presidential candidates was not about religion, instead focusing on whether the U.S. should provide aid to Ukraine and Israel. In the debate, Ramaswamy said he didn’t support providing additional aid to Ukraine.

Haley responded, “He wants to hand Ukraine to Russia, he wants to let China eat Taiwan, he wants to go and stop funding Israel. You don’t do that to friends.” She later added that Ramaswamy had “no foreign policy experience.”

This isn’t the first time that Coulter has come under fire for racist comments about Haley. In February, she sparked controversy by saying that Haley should “go back to [her] own country” while on The Mark Simone Show podcast.

“What’s with the worshipping of the cows? They’re all starving over there,” Coulter added. “Did you know they have a rat temple, where they worship rats?”