GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy released a video message Tuesday in response to the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) threat to expel him from the next debate in Miami if he were to participate in an hour-long debate on Fox News against fellow Republican candidate Chris Christie.
My ideas are a threat to the GOP Establishment & that’s why they’re trying to silence me. The mega donor plan was to have just *one* pet candidate take on Trump & now they’re losing their minds since that plot failed. They’re flailing and will try to prop up their flavor-of-the… pic.twitter.com/qiRvycZVFR
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) October 3, 2023
“Well, I was supposed to spar with Chris Christie in an open discussion but the RNC didn’t want to let that happen,” Ramaswamy said, noting that there needs to be a “real debate” between the “old, neocon vision and a new vision of what it actually means to put America First – a pro-positive nationalistic vision for this country.”
While calling the first two RNC-coordinated debates “disasters,” Ramaswamy said the organization threatened to eliminate him from the next debate in Miami if he appeared on Fox News on Tuesday to debate Christie.
“Let’s just be honest about what’s happening – I am a candidate whose ideas are a threat to the system. They did not plan for me to be in this race,” the presidential hopeful added.
Ramaswamy alleged the “mega-donor plan was to have just one pet candidate take on Trump & now they’re losing their minds since that plot failed,” saying last month’s candidate was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, this month its former South Carolina Nikki Haley, and next month will be Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.
“This is how the game of Super PAC puppet mastery in current politics works… We’ve got to be better than the other side,” Ramaswamy added.
The GOP candidate went on to say that the RNC is using its debate rule – which says candidates must sign a pledge agreeing not to participate in any non-RNC sanctioned debate for the remainder of the election cycle – to silence him, adding that the organization has not intervened in DeSantis’ scheduled debate on Fox News with California Governor Gavin Newsom next month.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” by Vivek Ramaswamy.
