Podcaster Andrew Schulz poked fun at Vivek Ramaswamy in an interview on Wednesday as he revived comments Ramaswamy made about immigration in December that were widely panned by conservatives.
The exchange took place on Schulz’s Flagrant podcast, where Ramaswamy — who has been teasing a run for Ohio governor — said he believed the Ohio River Valley could “go where Silicon Valley isn’t in terms of production,” referencing semi-conductors as an example. Co-host Akaash Singh interjected, “But how do you do that?” So you think you just get a lot more H-1B visas in Ohio?”
“How do you do it with these retard Americans?” Schulz asked as his co-hosts began chuckling. “We just got retarded Americans here in this country and there’s no way we can figure out engineering. … We’re too dumb!”
“You know what the sad part is? We’re actually some people say that,” Ramaswamy replied.
Ramaswamy — who briefly ran against President Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2020 — injected himself into a debate on X in December over H-1B employment visas. Writing in defense of importing immigrant workers, Ramaswamy wrote, “Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.”
He also described what he viewed as the ideal alternative: “More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less ‘chillin.’ More extracurriculars, less ‘hanging out at the mall.'”
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 26, 2024
Ramaswamy was widely heckled by conservatives on social after authoring missive, while White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles instructed Trump administration appointees to stop posting on social media on Dec. 30, four days after Ramaswamy’s post sparked controversy. Some critics suspect the controversy may have played a role in Ramaswamy’s Jan. 20 announcement that he was declining a position on the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a panel aimed at streamlining the federal government, which he had been expected to lead alongside billionaire Elon Musk. He wrote on X that he would “have more to say very soon about my future plans in Ohio. “
In Wednesday’s interview with Schulz, Ramaswamy elaborated on his objection to the way his comments about Americans were characterized.
Related: NBC’s Peter Alexander Insists Illegal Immigration Isn’t Criminal: ‘A Civil Crime, Not Criminal’
“The thing that pissed me off is actually a lot of people started saying the thing that you were saying,” Ramaswamy said, before trailing off. “Which is, actually there’s some IQ differential in other countries versus the U.S. I don’t think so … so if we have at least no less smart, and probably smarter on average than most countries — if not all countries — because of the selection bias of who comes here, yet in eighth grade…”
“You’re still saying it’s the immigrants that come here that make us smart,” Schulz said. Ramaswamy attempted to object again, but Schulz made a comedic interjection. “If you want it to be fine, just say white Christians are the smartest and everything will be OK,” Schulz said. “Just say Christ is King and we’re the smartest.”