“Was there a point in our prior national history where there have been vicious forms of anti-Black or anti-Brown discrimination in this country, after the Civil War and otherwise? Yes. But you’re looking in the rearview mirror,” said Ramaswamy, while making false incendiary claims that white supremacy was a fabricated threat as he stood in front of a banner that said “TRUTH.”

An entrepreneur and first-time candidate who built some momentum last year but has since faded sharply in polls of the Republican race, Ramaswamy has increasingly embraced extreme ideas, far-right individuals and causes, and debunked conspiracy theories. Barnstorming this state in the final stretch before the Iowa caucuses, some Republican strategists see his approach as a desperate ploy to garner attention as a provocateur. It’s one that is also dangerous, some experts warned, as data shows white extremist violence and threats have risen in recent years.

“While most people wouldn’t trust information coming from sources like Alex Jones or Steve King, they are more likely to trust a person like Ramaswamy who is running for the Republican Party nomination,” Jennifer Mercieca, a professor at Texas A&M University who researches democracy and rhetoric, wrote in an email. “This allows Ramaswamy to ‘launder’ narratives from the extreme rightwing fringe into the mainstream of American political discourse, which is how the extreme-right has taken over the Republican Party.”

His comments on race, which have focused on casting liberals as racists and portraying White people as victims of racism, mark the latest instance of a Republican candidate using inflammatory rhetoric that has drawn condemnations from civil rights leaders and scholars.

Although Ramaswamy has long run a campaign promoting provocative ideas such as raising the voting age to 25 unless certain requirements are met, as he has faded in the contest in recent months, his associations have grown more extreme.

Ramaswamy has increasingly gained support from far-right figures, including participating in a live audio discussion on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, with internet personality and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate, who has been charged with rape and human trafficking, and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who called Ramaswamy “Alex Jones 2.0.” Jones has falsely claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school mass killing was “staged” and was ordered to pay more than $1.1 billion after losing a series of lawsuits over his years of allegations that the massacre was a hoax.

Ramaswamy has also used his platform as a presidential candidate to spread unfounded theories about the government. In a town hall hosted by CNN last month, he repeated without specific evidence that Jan. 6, 2021, was an “inside job” and FBI agents triggered the crowd that stormed the U.S. Capitol — a baseless claim that has been refuted by numerous court documents and bipartisan congressional investigations. Ramaswamy repeated similar conspiracy theories later on and said the kidnapping plot involving Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) was instigated by the government, pointing to three men who were acquitted. However, nine of the 14 total defendants were convicted in the conspiracy.

“He’s making a very clear strategic move by feeding these narratives, because it gives him a very distinct niche as the all-in-for-Trump, Tucker Carlson-adjacent candidate who isn’t scared to make outlandish or ‘biased’ statements,” said Rita Katz, executive director of SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online extremism. “This strategy will certainly play into the sentiments of Trump’s most hardcore MAGA followers, who are all the hungrier for conspiracist validation as lawsuits against Trump mount.”

This positioning has come with little political reward in the primary for Ramaswamy, who is polling in fourth place in Iowa and fifth place in New Hampshire. The political newcomer surged to third place in polls after a breakout performance in the first GOP primary debate, but has tumbled down or stagnated since. Five percent of potential Republican caucusgoers said Ramaswamy was their first choice for president, far behind Trump (51%), DeSantis (19%) and Haley (16%), according to a Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom poll last month.

“He’s trying to be the next Alex Jones or Nick Fuentes,” said longtime Iowa GOP strategist Dave Kochel, adding the approach has not worked based on polling. Fuentes, a far-right political commentator, has a history of touting white nationalist ideas.

Ramaswamy claims polls have not accurately reflected the extent of his base, and has sought to appeal to Trump’s larger base by arguing the “deep state” will not allow the former president back into the White House, therefore he should be elected to finish what Trump started. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

On Tuesday, Ramaswamy was asked about the new endorsement of former congressman Steve King and whether it might boost his campaign considering King lost his seat in 2020 after questioning the negative connotation associated with white supremacy, a remark that had earned King rebukes from his own party.

Ramaswamy railed against a “mainstream media narrative” and argued King had said nothing racist. Asked by a Washington Post reporter if he himself condemned white supremacy, Ramaswamy said he was “not going to recite some catechism.”

“Of course, I condemn any form of vicious racial discrimination in this country, but I think the presumption of your question is fundamentally based on a falsehood that this is really the main form of racial discrimination we see in this country today,” Ramaswamy said, adding that he believes “institutionalized racial discrimination” seen in America today is “based on affirmative action.”

The reply earned cheers from the small crowd of supporters and campaign staff beside him; it also brought about more questions about Ramaswamy’s position on race as his party’s leading candidates have faced condemnation from civil rights leaders and scholars over recent provocative stances on issues involving race.

Ramaswamy went on to say the only example of the “myth of white supremacy” is actor Jussie Smollett, a Black and gay actor who was convicted of staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself in 2019.

“Stop picking on this farce of some figment of something that exists at an infinitesimally small fringe of the American public today and open your eyes to the actual real threats that we face,” Ramaswamy said.

When another reporter asked how he could cite Smollett as an example of white supremacy given the existence of Roof, who was sentenced to death for a federal hate crime for killing nine Black parishioners in 2015, Ramaswamy said, “I don’t know who that is.”

After Tuesday’s comments, he shared the video of his interactions with reporters on X. He called the question if he condemned white supremacy the “stupidest” question he had been asked on the campaign trail.

This was not the first time Ramaswamy has cast doubt on the existence of white supremacy in America. In August, he compared Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), who is Black, to a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and said he didn’t believe white supremacists existed. The next day, a White man shot and killed three Black people in Jacksonville, Fla., using an AR-15-style rifle inscribed with Nazi insignia, authorities said.

“I’m sure the boogeyman white supremacists exist somewhere in America,” Ramaswamy said during a campaign stop in Iowa a day before the shooting. “I have just never met him. Never seen one. Never met one in my life, right? Maybe I will meet a unicorn sooner. And maybe those exist, too.”

Last year, the FBI reported that extremism “driven by a belief in the superiority of the white race” remained among the agency’s highest priority threats. Oren Segal, the vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, also pointed to data collected by the civil rights group that has shown a significant uptick in white supremacist propaganda; the ADL tracked a 38 percent increase in 2022 in what it classified as “white supremacist propaganda” incidents from the previous year.

“The evidence and the data showing the threat of white supremacist violence in particular is easy to find and it’s downplayed not on extremist fringes only but in our public discussion,” Segal said. “The rejection of some of the most horrific mass casualty attacks don’t fit some people’s political narrative.”

Ramaswamy’s streak of incendiary comments has earned him less attention compared to his higher polling rivals, and some Republican voters attending other candidates’ events have questioned Ramaswamy’s comments and lack of political experience.

“He’s a good young man,” New Hampshire voter Kenneth Strong said at a town hall for U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. “But he’s not experienced, especially in foreign relations,” added Strong, who said he was considering voting for Trump or Haley.

However, voters at Ramaswamy’s town hall said they would remain open to supporting Ramaswamy.

Iowa resident Gwen Tombergs, an independent attending the event, said she’s considering backing Ramaswamy because she likes his business experience, but she disagreed with some of Ramaswamy’s remarks. When she saw King endorsed him, she searched King’s name because she didn’t know who he was — but she said she didn’t agree with supporting white nationalism.

After hearing Ramaswamy’s comments about white supremacy, Tombergs, who is White, said she thinks he might have meant that he hasn’t experienced extremism, and neither has she; still, she said she would look closer at what he said and hasn’t ruled out supporting another candidate.

“You can’t say nationalism,” she said. “I don’t care if it’s white, black or purple. It just doesn’t sound like it’s a real positive thing.”