Exclusive: Vivek Ramaswamy Paid to Have His Soros Fellowship and Covid-Era Role Scrubbed from Wikipedia Page

Longshot presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has accused his prospective Republican rivals of parroting him, but Ramaswamy himself has made an intentional effort to conceal his own biography, even paying a Wikipedia editor to remove potentially politically damaging details about his past from his page.

Ramaswamy’s Wikipedia page includes the warning, “this article has multiple issues,” with a note that it “contains paid contributions” and “may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia’s content policies, particularly neutral point of view.”

The source of these concerns are changes made by an editor with the screen name “Jhofferman,” who has disclosed that he was paid by Ramaswamy to make alterations to the page.

According to the article’s version history, the editor removed lines about Ramaswamy’s receipt of a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans in 2011. Paul Soros was the older brother of billionaire funder of leftist causes George Soros, who was the biggest individual political donor in the United States during the 2022 election cycle. Also removed from the page on February 9, 2023 was Ramaswamy’s role on the state of Ohio’s Covid-19 Response Team. The editor recorded that Ramaswamy’s Covid-era work was removed from the article by the candidate’s own explicit request, while his Soros fellowship was deemed “extraneous material” by the editor.

The editor’s conflict of interest was debated by Wikipedia users and editors after the alterations were made; the reference to Ramaswamy’s fellowship was later added back to the page, although his tenure on the Ohio Covid Team remains absent.

Ramaswamy announced his candidacy for the White House a little less than two weeks after the changes to his page were made.

Both of the excised biographical details could conceivably harm Ramaswamy’s standing in a Republican primary.

The reach of Soros in progressive and left-wing politics has long been the subject of conservative and Republican criticism, although the fellowship program Ramaswamy participated in did not involve him in any kind of progressive activism. Paul and Daisy Soros Fellows — all of whom are either immigrants or children of immigrants — receive funding for graduate school. Still, Ramaswamy’s mere association with the Soros surname has been a point of discussion online, and Ramaswamy has made a point of criticizing Soros in his campaign.

“Money more than talks in the Biden White House: George Soros’ son has visited more than *14 times,*” observed Ramaswamy in an Instagram post last month. “Cronyism leads to corruption. Republicans should be the party that wants to keep mega-money out of politics. But career GOP politicians dependent on their sugar daddies can’t say it.”

“Democrats used to be the party that said they want to keep money out of politics. They’re the party now that has used money to infect politics,” he added in a Fox Business Network appearance during which he addressed the same subject.

His time on the Ohio Coronavirus Response Team, which was mentioned during a May 2020 Tucker Carlson interview with Ramaswamy, could also be a potential headache for the candidate and his campaign.

During his appearance on Carlson’s show, Ramaswamy openly hoped that development of therapeutics for the virus could open the door to a “more measured,” less restrictive approach to containing the virus, decrying the “siren’s song of authoritarianism.”

But Ohio was notable among Republican-run states for adopting a more restrictive approach to Covid-19, at least as compared to states such as Florida and Georgia. Governor Mike DeWine (R) faced criticism from primary challengers over his response to the crisis last year, although he easily defeated them.

There’s little evidence to suggest that Ramaswamy favored a heavy-handed response to the virus, but as in the case of his fellowship, appearances alone could be harmful.

While the substantive concerns about the removed details would appear to be minimal, the candidate’s financial effort to deliberately conceal his past raises questions over his trust of voters and confidence in his ability to explain his record to them.

It’s a particularly penetrating critique given the accusations Ramaswamy has thrown at “@GOP donor class favorites” such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R). “Stop being fake,” offered Ramaswamy in a challenge to his prospective rival.

Other critics, to include National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke have charged Ramaswamy with running as a lead blocker for the favorite for the Republican nomination, former president Donald Trump. “He’s running as Donald Trump’s obsequious press secretary,” wrote Cooke last month, citing Ramaswamy’s own claim that he is “not running against President Trump.”

Ramaswamy has the support of 2.6% of the Republican primary electorate according to the RealClearPolitics’ polling average. His campaign has not yet responded to Mediaite’s request for comment.

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