West Palm Beach, FL – A large photo displaying Vivek Ramaswamy‘s face was defaced with antisemtic drawings and Nazi refences at the conservative Turning Point Action Conference earlier this month, according to an video segment released on Sunday by CNN.
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.
Ramaswamy is currently polling in third place on average in the Republican presidential primary, according to a national average assembled by Real Clear Politics.