Caucus Byte: Wrecks in Effect

I keep this blog of all the weird (and sometimes things that are normal but become weird in context) things that go on the Iowa Caucus Campaign Trail. 

I am not always timely and I am definitely not the best resource, but I am just having some fun. I think at times, that I have seen it all, but sometimes things like this news item from yesterday still surprises me. 

The Washington Examiner reported this headline yesterday: Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign vehicle involved in car crash with protesters 

Definitely weird. 

Probably didn't look like this picture, if I am being honest

We talk about “getting close” to the candidates but this is ridiculous cha-cha-cha. 

I don’t want any candidate to be harmed. Obviously, I am a big supporter of candidates making themselves available and I don’t want to be jeopardized. I do think of the possibility of it being intentional but I have also been at many campaign events in my lifetime and I know there is always a chaotic element that comes with any public gathering. 

I don’t know I expected the “next day” coverage of Ramaswamy saying it was intentional while other reports by Grinnell Police say otherwise. 

Local CBS affiliate KCCI reports:

Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign says at least two protesters upset about the Republican presidential candidate’s remarks in opposition to aid for Ukraine purposely rammed his car in Iowa in retaliation on Thursday, but police say there is no evidence to support the claim that the crash was intentional. 

The police account of the crash in the central Iowa city of Grinnell sharply diverged from the story told earlier by Ramaswamy’s campaign, which contended that protesters yelled and swore at the candidate before at least one of them jumped into a vehicle, rammed his empty campaign car and sped off. 

The campaign said that no one was injured and that it had filed a police report. Police say they were dispatched to a coffee shop in the city shortly after 1 p.m. for a report of property damage. While there, they contacted a 22-year-old woman who reported that she had just eaten lunch at a nearby deli and was backing her car out of her parking spot when she accidentally struck a Ford Expedition that was across the street. 

Police say the woman told them she was not there protesting anything, had no idea whose vehicle she had hit, did not intentionally cause the crash and did not flee the scene. Police say there is no evidence to substantiate the claim that protesters intentionally hit Ramaswamy’s campaign vehicle and sped off. Both vehicles had minor damage, police said, and the woman received a traffic summons for unsafe backing. 

Ramaswamy spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told The Associated Press that the campaign stands by its assessment that the driver was a protester. She also stood by her assessment that there were two people in the car that hit the campaign car. “I’m confident of what happened. I was there,” McLaughlin said. 

The Des Moines Register similarly reporting adding Ramaswamy’s social media interaction today

“Had a civil exchange with protestors today, right before two of them then got into their car & rammed it into ours,” he wrote. “Those two should be held accountable, but the rest of the peaceful protestors shouldn’t be tarred by the behavior of two bad actors.” 

Social media reactions I read about the incident were completely unbiased and perfectly reasonable as you might expect. 

Just Civil Discourse Online as far as my eye can see

We will be back here on Monday