Iowa newspaper apologizes for Vivek Ramaswamy cartoon depicting GOP voters as racist: 'Inexcusable'

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The major Iowa newspaper that published a political cartoon depicting MAGA voters yelling racial slurs at Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy issued a formal apology over the weekend after the GOP hopeful slammed the depiction as "shameful."

The Quad-City Times executive editor Tom Martin wrote on the paper's website Friday that the "inexcusable" cartoon was intended to "criticize racist ideas and epithets" but instead featured a phrase that "is racist and insensitive to members of our Indian American community."

"Racist and hateful ideas, words or images have no place in our publications, much less our society. It’s why we apologize today for letting such an image slip through our editorial process and into our opinion page Wednesday in the form of a political cartoon," he wrote.

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An Iowa newspaper that published a political cartoon depicting MAGA voters yelling racial slurs at Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy issued a formal apology over the weekend. (Scott Olson/Getty Images/File)

Martin said the controversial cartoon has been removed from the paper's website and that they will no longer accept any work from the cartoon artist responsible.

"We apologize to Republican primary presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, the Indian American community and our readers for publishing the offensive material in the Quad-City Times and Dispatch-Argus," he wrote. "We seek to share diverse ideas on our opinion pages – editorials, cartoons and commentary that provoke thought and constructive ideas. Dividing and disparaging with any racist images or rhetoric does not fit that mission or our ideals as a local news company. The oversight that allowed it to run is inexcusable, and we can and will do better."

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2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy slammed the cartoon as "shameful" for stereotyping conservative voters as racists. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The cartoon was published in Wednesday’s edition of the Iowa paper, which reports news from four cities between Iowa and Illinois. In black and white ink, it depicted a campaign rally with Ramaswamy addressing MAGA voters, who were drawn hurling racial insults at him from the stands on the campaign trail.

At the podium, Ramaswamy was drawn, saying, "Hello my MAGA friends!" Three angry White men in the crowd each responded to his appearance with a racial slur.

One screamed, "Muslim!" getting the candidate’s religion wrong. Ramaswamy is a self-professed Hindu.

Another made a racist reference to the Kwik-E-Mart owner from "The Simpsons," yelling, "Get me a slushee, Apu!!!" and a third pulled out the old Obama-era birther line, demanding, "Show us your birth certificate!!!"

The cartoon also seemed to mock Ramaswamy’s campaign platform, with the drawing of the candidate’s poster behind him stating, "Quad City Republicans Welcome Anti-Woke Crusader Vivek Ramaswamy 2024."

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Ramaswamy, an American biotech entrepreneur of Indian descent who has branded himself a pro-MAGA presidential candidate, slammed the cartoon as "shameful" for stereotyping conservative voters as racists on Twitter last week, insisting that the left, not the right, is the only group he has experienced promoting the kind of "bigotry" presented in the drawing.

The candidate tweeted, "It’s sad that this is how the MSM views Republicans. I’ve met with grassroots conservatives across America & never *once* experienced the kind of bigotry that I regularly see from the Left," he said.

Ramaswamy defended the paper’s right to print the cartoon but insisted it was poor taste all the same. He said, "Iowa’s @qctimes absolutely has the right to print this, but it’s still shameful."

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Other prominent Twitter users slammed the drawing as "typical BS from the 'accepting, and all loving' leftists" and a representation of "what the Left, specifically white Democrats, thinks about people like Vivek."

Fox News' Gabriel Hayes contributed to this report.