Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was interrupted by a single mother during a campaign event Monday, and video of the interaction has since racked up almost 2 million views as of this writing.
“I’m not having someone’s kid if they non-consensually rape me,” a woman yells as Ramaswamy speaks to a group of supporters. (RELATED: Transgender Athlete Says He Intentionally Won Female Competition To ‘Stir Controversy’ About Fairness In Sports)
“President Trump is a rapist, protect all women,” the woman can be heard saying from the back of the room.
“Can I just say one thing? Can you give her a chance to speak?” Ramaswamy said, as security ushered the woman out of the door, “You wanna come back here? You can say something to me, it’s ok, come back, come on down. Come up, you can ask me a question, and I will answer it.”
I’m in Iowa right now with Vivek Ramaswamy who was just interrupted by a single mother who believes it’s her body and her choice. Watch and hear his response. pic.twitter.com/8Tg4vVFPiz
— Link Lauren (@itslinklauren) July 11, 2023
“If someone non-consensually rapes me I’m not having their child, this is my choice, it’s my body,” the woman said after walking to the front of the auditorium. “I’m already raising a kid that somebody implanted in me and doesn’t take care of, The system does nothing for the single mother. There’s no child support and nobody goes after them. I raised my child by myself for eight years.”
“What is your name?” Ramaswamy asked.
“My name is Kayla Crist.”
“And are you a mother?”
“I am a mother. And my kid is successful and I don’t wanna be frowned upon, I don’t wanna be put down because I’m a single mother. My kid is healthy, happy, and successful.”
“Thank you, and I wanna say one of the most important things is a mother raising children in this world. Even if we have our disagreements, I wanna say thank you for that. And part of what it means to live in this country is we have free speech, we get to speak our minds openly, even if we don’t all agree, so let’s actually applaud her for the courage of coming in and asking a question,” Ramaswamy said, as the crowd applauded.
TikToker Link Lauren, who posted the original video, interviewed Crist outside the building after the interruption, and asked her about the interaction.
“I have very many gay, straight, bisexual, transgender allies all across the world, and I hate to hear somebody say there’s just man and woman when I know there are people born with different parts,” she said.
