Vivek Ramaswamy joins Trump's call for unity: ‘Our enemy is an ideology’

Vivek Ramaswamy, an outspoken cheerleader of Donald Trump even during his own presidential campaign, opened the Heritage Foundation’s Policy Fest on Monday morning by calling for Republicans to continue opposing the “ideology” that they believe is harmful to the country, without demonizing Democrats in the process.

"The truth is, I think we were a hair's breadth away from a civil war just a few nights ago," Ramaswamy said. “And the difficult part about it is, we are in the middle of a kind of war in this country, but our enemy is not the Democrats.”

“Our enemy is an ideology, and our task ahead is, how can we defeat that poisonous ideology, while still viewing our fellow citizens as our neighbors who deserve to be liberated from that ideology? We're not going to win this election and we're not going to revive this country, I believe, by just lambasting the other side.”

His speech echoed recent comments by Trump and those close to him, that after surviving an attempted assassination on Saturday he is interested in promoting national unity.

Speaking to reporters after his address, Ramaswamy conceded that both parties should cut back on partisan attacks against the other, but said Republicans should step up and start this week.

“I hope, and what I expect to see is lambasting less the other side or the radical Biden agenda — who knows if it's going to be Biden anyway — but instead to stand up for who we are and what we actually stand for,” Ramaswamy said. “To stand for the shared ideals that unite all Americans, regardless of their creed or even their political party.”