Vivek Ramaswamy at 3rd GOP debate: 'We've become a party of losers'
Ramaswamy slams his party for losing the majority of major elections since 2018.
In response to the first question at Wednesday’s GOP debate in which each candidate was asked why they should be the Republican nominee instead of the GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy slammed Republicans as a “party of losers.”
“I think there is something deeper going on in the Republican Party here and I am upset about what happened last night,” Ramaswamy said, referencing the major wins for Democrats in Tuesday’s off-year elections. “We’ve become a party of losers at the end of the day.”
The quip came less than five minutes into the third GOP debate, which was hosted by NBC News in Miami and featured just five candidates. Noticeably absent was Trump, who chose not to participate for a third straight time and has repeatedly insisted that he does not need to debate his Republican opponents because he’s certain he will win the party’s nomination.
Ramaswamy went on to blame Ronna McDaniel, who’s been the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee since 2017, for a slew of Republican losses: the majority of statewide races in 2018, the presidential election in 2020 and the failure to produce the “red wave” that many experts had predicted in the 2022 midterms.
“[Losing] is a cancer to the Republican establishment,” Ramaswamy said. “Let’s speak the truth.”
A Yahoo News/YouGov poll last month found that Trump is the preferred candidate of 56% of Republicans nationwide. The next closest competitor is DeSantis at 16%, followed by Haley at 9%. Ramaswamy was favored by just 2%.
‘We need accountability’
In a surprise turn during his response, Ramaswamy took aim at the debate moderators, calling out NBC News' Kristen Welker of “Meet the Press” for pushing what he called “the Trump/Russia collusion hoax.”
“This should be Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk,” he said. “We’d have 10 times the viewership, asking questions that GOP primary voters care about and bringing people we want into our party.”
Welker responded with a smile.
“This is how we get our country back,” Ramaswamy said, adding that the media “rigged” the presidential elections in 2016 and 2020, which are both unfounded claims that have been debunked. “We need accountability.”
