CLAIM: Republican presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday night accused NBC News debate moderator Kristen Welker of previously promoting the conspiracy that former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential election.
VERDICT: True. Welker, while she was the White House correspondent for NBC News, routinely promoted reports from her network and other media outlets like the New York Times that falsely suggested Trump colluded with Russia.
“Kristen, I’m going to use this time because this is actually about you and the media and the corrupt media establishment,” Ramaswamy said. “[I will] ask you: the Trump-Russia collusion hoax that you pushed on this network for years, was that real, or was that Hillary Clinton made-up disinformation? Answer the question, go.”
Welker, in response, ignored the question from Ramaswamy, and the debate moderators quickly moved on to another candidate.
Indeed, as Ramaswamy stated, Welker reported heavily throughout the years regarding the Trump-Russia conspiracy. In one segment from 2019, Welker asked Trump directly if he worked for Russia.
“I never worked for Russia,” Trump told Welker at the time, also telling her that it was a “disgrace” that she asked the question to begin with, considering the extremely limited evidence that the former president had worked with Russia.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.