GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is apparently promoting a CNN town hall that the network said was never officially scheduled.
Last week, Ramaswamy announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he would soon be doing a town hall event with CNN.
However, no such event was ultimately scheduled on that day with Ramaswamy, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Semafor in a report published Thursday.
“The information in Mr. Ramaswamy’s post is incorrect and there is not a CNN Town Hall currently planned for September 12th,” a CNN spokesperson later told HuffPost, echoing similar statements that the network had sent to both Semafor and The Hill.
The spokesperson also noted that CNN is “in regular communication with Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign, and many other leading campaigns, about the potential for engaging in CNN Town Halls or other political programming during the 2024 election cycle.”
Semafor said one of its sources believed Ramaswamy’s tweet about an event was just an attempt to “will it into existence.”
Even stranger: The candidate made the claim even after he was reportedly informed by CNN that a town hall wasn’t going to happen on that day.
Ramaswamy’s camp told Semafor that the town hall date was officially set, but said CNN canceled the event and “vaguely” linked the move to leadership changes within the network.
“We had reached an agreement for September 12 in New York and even selected a moderator,” a Ramaswamy spokesperson told Semafor, with a similar statement later sent to HuffPost. “CNN says they are looking for another date.”
The news about the candidate’s questionable event promotion comes as he faces accusations of not being fully truthful.
On Wednesday, Ramaswamy had an awkward interview with MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan in which he seemed either unable or unwilling to explain his past criticism of fellow GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Last week, Republican strategist Karl Rove criticized Ramaswamy, calling him “a performance artist who says outrageous things, smears his opponents and appeals to the dark parts of the American psyche.”
NBC’s Chuck Todd has also called out Ramaswamy, saying that although the candidate previously decried baseless claims of a “stolen” 2020 election, he is now “doing the exact opposite.”
But Ramaswamy’s biggest battle with the truth took place this past weekend. While giving a speech in New Hampshire, a giant sign bearing the word “truth” came falling down on him.