Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign insists that reports the Republican presidential candidate paid to have his Wikipedia page “scrubbed” are disingenuous.
Senior adviser Tricia McLaughlin told HuffPost by text that the changes were revisions of “factual distortions” on “a number of topics, including family members’ names.”
On Wednesday, Mediaite noted that the multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur and conservative activist’s page includes a warning that the article has “multiple issues,” “contains paid contributions,” and “may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia’s content policies, particularly neutral point of view.”
The article’s version history shows that an editor identified by Mediaite as Jhofferman removed lines about Ramaswamy receiving a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans in 2011.
Ramaswamy’s page was also apparently edited to remove his role on the state of Ohio’s COVID-19 Response Team, which an editor noted came at the candidate’s request.
Jhofferman’s user page notes that Ramashamy paid him to edit the page.
Ramaswamy’s fellowship came from the older brother of billionaire George Soros, who funds many progressive causes and is a boogie man for conservatives.
The New Republic noted that some prominent right-wingers like Jack Posobiec use Soros as a catch-all for anything “suspicious,” so it’s likely Ramaswamy didn’t want to call attention to that connection.
But McLaughlin said Ramaswamy isn’t trying to hide anything about his past.
“The point is getting accurate information on his Wikipedia,” she said.
Since “all of this information is Googleable,” McLaughlin said, “it makes sense to clear up lies and deception planted by the very folks who appear to have planted this story.”
McLaughlin added: “It’s telling that the DeSantis Super PAC promptly distributed this misleading story ― says a lot about where this non-story came from.”
Ramaswamy’s Wikipedia page currently does include mentions of the Soros fellowship and his work on the Ohip COVID-19 task force.
It has also been updated to include a new subhead: “Potential misuse of Wikipedia” that says, in part, “Ramaswamy may have paid an editor to alter his Wikipedia page to appear more favorable to political conservatives before announcing his campaign.”