Iowa Major Daily Newspaper Apologizes for ‘Inexcusable’ Political Cartoon GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Called ‘Shameful’

M.D. Kittle

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — The Quad-City Times has apologized for a political cartoon that GOP Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy described as “shameful.”

The cartoon depicts Ramaswamy, a second-generation Indian American at a sparsely attended campaign stop of “MAGA friends” — a reference to former President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan, but more so what the cartoonist apparently believes to be the slack-jawed, racist yokels who support the MAGA movement.

One voter at the rally points his finger and calls Ramaswamy a “Muslim!!” Another yells out, “Show us your birth certificate!!!” And yet another mockingly screams, “Get me a Slushee Apu!!!”

“It’s sad that this is how the MSM views Republicans. I’ve met with grassroots conservatives across America & never *once* experienced the kind of bigotry that I regularly see from the Left. Iowa’s ⁦@qctimes absolutely has the right to print this, but it’s still shameful,” Ramaswamy, a tenacious First Amendment advocate and anti-woke crusader tweeted.

Following the Ohio entrepreneur’s public criticism, Tom Martin, executive editor of the Quad-City Times, apologized on the newspaper’s website. He said the “inexcusable” cartoon was intended to “criticize racist ideas and epithets” but instead featured a phrase that “is racist and insensitive to members of our Indian American community.” “Racist and hateful ideas, words or images have no place in our publications, much less our society. It’s why we apologize today for letting such an image slip through our editorial process and into our opinion page Wednesday in the form of a political cartoon,” Martin wrote.

The cartoon has since been removed, and the newspaper will no longer accept work from the cartoonist, according to the editor.

“We seek to share diverse ideas on our opinion pages — editorials, cartoons and commentary that provoke thought and constructive ideas,” Martin wrote. “Dividing and disparaging with any racist images or rhetoric does not fit that mission or our ideals as a local news company.”

“The oversight that allowed it to run is inexcusable, and we can and will do better. We are sorry.”

But a reader pointed out the “obvious glaring omission” from the newspaper’s apology: the lack of apology to Republican voters were characterized in the cartoon as racist.

“It seems they are the ones who should have received the biggest apology. But by omitting that, you make it clear that you believe what was said was accurate and so you were apologizing only for the possibly hurt feelings of indian americans. I’m glad you apologized to them but to neglect the other is shameful,” the commenter wrote.

Ramaswamy doesn’t seem to be holding any grudges. The 37-year-old presidential candidate who said he was once an aspiring stand-up comedian, told Fox News that he can “empathize with a bad joke.”

“Let’s call a bad job what it was and move on. That’s the way I deal with it,” he said.

This isn’t the first time Ramaswamy has been the subject of racially charged language from the liberal media.

Earlier this year, CNN host Don Lemon, who is black, attempted to race shame Ramaswamy.

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t express your views,” Lemon said. “But that you’re sitting here, whatever ethnicity you are, ‘splaining to me what it’s like to be Black in America. I’m sorry.”

Woke warrior Lemon, who has had a history of saying things that have gotten him in trouble at CNN, was promptly fired from CNN.

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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” by Vivek Ramaswamy. Background Photo “Quad-City Times Cartoon” by Vivek Ramaswamy.

 

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