The campaign team of Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy asserted on Thursday that protesters had collided with their parked vehicle during a campaign event in Grinnell, Iowa.

However, local law enforcement subsequently clarified the actual sequence of events.

Ramaswamy’s unoccupied vehicle was indeed involved in an accident when another car collided with it in a parking lot outside a coffeehouse, Politico reported.

While Ramaswamy’s campaign informed Politico on Thursday that two protesters were responsible for the collision, the police investigation revealed that the incident involved a driver who had no connection to the protest.

In a statement released on Thursday night, the police confirmed that their investigation has found no evidence to support the assertion that protesters intentionally struck Ramaswamy’s car and then fled the scene.

Contrary to earlier claims, law enforcement officials have reported that a woman who had recently dined at a deli accidentally backed her vehicle out of a parking space and collided with the campaign’s rental vehicle.

A formal report was filed, and the driver was subsequently released with a summons for unsafe backing.

“[The driver] stated she was not in the area to protest, she did not know who the vehicle she struck belonged to, she did not intentionally back into the vehicle, and she did not flee the scene of the accident,” police said in a statement.

Following the release of the statement by Iowa police that contradicted the Ramaswamy campaign’s assertion, Tricia McLaughlin, Ramaswamy’s senior adviser, shared a photo and video on X (formerly known as Twitter).

The visuals depicted an individual in a car making a rude gesture towards Ramaswamy, although they did not capture the actual collision.

“Suppose a guy wearing a MAGA hat is standing amongst protestors at a Democrat presidential candidate’s event, then gets into his car with aggressive bumper stickers, flips off the candidate & screams profanities, lays on his horn, and then reverse-rams the candidate’s parked SUV,” Ramaswamy posted on X in response to the police’s statement. “I’m sure they’d be just as eager to call it an unrelated accident, right?”

Written by staff