EXCLUSIVE: Vivek Ramaswamy Reacts To Being Chased Out Of Pro-Hamas Protest Near DNC

CHICAGO—Former Republican presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy said he thought he would be able to have a “dialogue” with activists demonstrating outside the Democratic National Convention, but he was instead called a “racist” and chased out of the pro-Hamas protest, he told The Daily Wire.

Ramaswamy said he made a surprise appearance at the protest in Union Park to see what was happening with his own eyes.

“Whether or not you agree with me, whether or not you like me, you have the right to speak your mind as long as it’s peaceful,” Ramaswamy said. “I don’t exactly know what happened at the end there.”

EXCLUSIVE: @VivekGRamaswamy reacts to getting mobbed at the pro-Hamas protest outside the DNC

“I was hoping to have a dialogue…then I got called a racist.” pic.twitter.com/bT7mfp1MnB

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) August 23, 2024

As Ramaswamy was being escorted away by his security detail, protesters chanted, “Racist go home,” as a fight broke out when radical activists attacked a man with an American flag who stepped in to support Ramaswamy.

Anti-Israel protesters have been gathering at the park and marching to the security barrier outside the DNC to voice their opposition to Israel every night of the DNC. Protesters clashed with police during several of the marches.

Ramaswamy said he was disappointed that many of the protesters were unwilling to have an open dialogue.

“I do care about the well-being and plight of people everywhere in the world, including in Gaza, but we can’t have this conversation ignoring the reality of the event that precipitated it, which was of course an attack on Israel’s sovereignty and its own people,” he said.

“I was hoping that would open up interesting dialogue,” he added. “But then I started to get called racist.”

One of the protesters who confronted Ramaswamy was Hatem Abudayyeh, who openly supports Hamas and had his home raided by the FBI in 2010 for “material support of terrorism.” Abudayyeh told Ramaswamy to leave, calling him a “racist Zionist pig.”

“The good news is we are in America, and so we all actually get to express ourselves,” Ramaswamy quipped back.

WATCH: Vivek Ramaswamy Chased Out By Angry Mob At Anti-Israel Protest Outside DNC

Ramaswamy said he enjoyed buying a newspaper called “The Communist” for five dollars before he was swarmed by protesters demanding he leave.

“My favorite exchange was buying, with U.S. dollars — though they accept Venmo as well — this communist literature from this guy,” Ramaswamy said. “Kind of interesting.”

The Trump campaign surrogate said he plans to read the paper, but likely not from “cover to cover.”

Ramaswamy said he thinks there were more active protests outside the DNC than the Republican National Convention because people who lean left tend to be more “chaotic.”

“I think the left in part is based on chaos, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. Conservatives tend to order their universe based on order and liberals and the far left tend to order their view on disorder.”

At the protest, attendees were carrying a mix of Palestinian flags, Black Liberation flags, communist flags, and a Hezbollah flag.

The anti-Israel protesters are expected to march outside the DNC Thursday night, where Vice President Kamala Harris will officially accept the Democratic presidential nomination.