It seems GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is taking another page from the book of Donald Trump.
If you missed it, the latest GOP presidential debate took place Thursday night. Naturally, Donald Trump was not present, as he has thus far refused to debate his Republican contenders at all.
Also not on the stage is political newcomer and entrepreneur (another Trump commonality) Vivek Ramaswamy.
Now, it’s important to point out here that Ramaswamy didn’t refuse to debate as Trump did. Instead, CNN, the network hosting the debate, didn’t allow him to.
According to CNN, only debate candidates meeting their own set of requirements were allowed to participate.
Specifically, that means all debate contestants “must receive at least 10% in three separate national and/or Iowa polls of Republican caucusgoers or primary voters that meet CNN’s standards for reporting.”
It would be one thing if Ramaswamy legitimately didn’t make that cut.
But what if he did?
According to Real Clear Polling, he actually earned double digits in polls conducted by Fox, Morning Consult, and Reuters/Ipsos in September. And yet, CNN still forbade him from debating.
So, in a classic Trump-like move, Ramaswamy made sure to interrupt the debate, quite literally.
Thanks to him and his campaign, a 30-second ad aired on CNN during the debate featuring Ramaswamy in which he made sure to call out the outlet and mainstream media for “trying to rig the Iowa GOP caucus in favor of the corporate candidates who they can control.”
The most interesting 30-seconds of the most boring presidential “debate” in modern history. pic.twitter.com/qYYMiXxQ32
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) January 10, 2024
Naturally, this also points the finger at Florida’s Ron DeSantis and South Carolina’s Nikki Haley, the only two other contestants to make the CNN grade.
As Ramaswamy noted in his interrupting ad, the media has lied about just about everything as of late, from COVID to January 6. But “You can fix that. Take your remote and turn this s*** off.”
Talk about making a splash…
