Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called for cancelling Juneteenth after he had previously posted a video celebrating the holiday, NBC News reported.
Mr Ramaswamy spoke in Vail, Iowa, about how to make elections more secure. In his speech, he called for Election Day to be made a national holiday.
“Cancel Juneteenth or one of the other useless ones we made up,” he said. In addition, he called for paper ballots and voter identification cards despite the fact there is little evidence of widespread voter fraud.
When asked if he considers Juneteenth a “useless” holiday, he said, “I basically do.”
Juneteenth commemorates when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas on 19 June 1865 and announced that enslaved people were officially freed. In the ensuing years, it became a day of celebration in Black communities across Texas.
In 2021, Congress voted overwhelmingly and President Joe Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth a national holiday.
But two months ago, Mr Ramaswamy posted a video celebrating Juneteenth.
“We don’t just look back and flog ourselves, that’s beside the point,” Mr Ramaswamy said. “What we celebrate is how far we’ve come, and as a first-generation American myself, you better believe I’m proud of it. Happy Juneteenth, everybody.”
When asked by NBC News whether he thought Veterans Day or Memorial Day were useless, Mr Ramaswamy deferred.
“I stand with the presumption of time-tested traditions,” he said, calling Juneteenth “redundant” of Martin Luther King Jr Day and Presidents Day.
“The reason for making it a holiday was under political duress. It was a political hostage situation on the back of the death of George Floyd,” he said.
