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Political strategist Donna Brazile has been at the receiving end of backlash online, after allegedly being racist towards the US presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. The former appeared on Friday’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, where the show's host shot down Brazile’s allegedly racist remarks.
During the show, where Brazile gave her two cents on the presidential candidate, host Bill Maher corrected her pronunciation of Vivek’s name, to which Brazile responded by saying, “well, whatever.”
She proceeded to mispronounce his name yet again, which prompted laughter in the crowd, and Maher also went on to chuckle to himself. After the American strategist finally pronounced Ramaswamy’s name correctly, she sarcastically said, “I learn so much when I come on this show" and added:
“Vivek needs to go home!”
Netizens believe that Donna Brazile was apparently referring to the presidential candidate’s Indian ethnicity, implying that he go to India. However, she failed to recognize that the Roivant Sciences founder was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on August 9, 1985. In response to the statement, Maher said:
“I feel like there’s something wrong with everybody refusing to learn to say his name. I just want to say, there’s a little racism there… I know we don’t like him but just say his name right.”
After a video clip of the same began making its rounds online, the Republican candidate also took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to respond to Brazile's comments.
“Sounds like she’s a racist”: Netizens put Donna Brazile on blast after she mispronounces Vivek Ramaswamy’s name on national television
A clip of the interaction between Bill Maher and his guests on the Friday, November 17 episode of his show has gone viral on X (formerly Twitter), after X user @amuse uploaded the same to the social media site. The video has now gone on to amass nearly 11 million views at the time of writing this article.
Several netizens were outraged by Donna Brazile’s remarks, and many opined that she was being racist.
Brazile, however, had not publicly responded to the backlash at the time of writing this article.
Vivek Ramaswamy takes to X to respond to the viral Donna Brazile clip
The 38-year-old presidential candidate took to X to respond to the viral Real Time with Bill Maher show clip featuring Donna Brazile's comments. He said:
“I wonder what they’d do if a white Republican intentionally mispronounced Donna’s name & then told her to return “home.””
The GOP hopeful has interacted with liberal comedian Bill Maher in the past. The former appeared on Maher’s Club Random podcast, where the comic seemingly showered Ramaswamy with compliments. While poking former president Donald Trump and current POTUS Joe Biden for their ages, Maher told Ramaswamy:
“Look, you’re attractive looking. You’re young. First of all, here’s a big advantage you have. Biden and Trump, people hate this matchup, and they hate that these two geriatrics. You’re like, the most not that… You have a great amount of energy at 38.”
During Ramaswamy’s appearance on the podcast, he stressed on how he wishes to make “patriotism cool again for young people.”
Ramaswamy also recently made headlines for he wanted to endorse the shared values of Christianity and Hinduism to the youth. During his appearance at The Family Leader forum, he also spoke about how Hinduism played a role in his shift to politics.
