Vivek Ramaswamy used his opening question at the third Republican debate by turning to an old standby: Attacking the media.
In this case, at the NBC News-hosted event, he went after Kristen Welker, who is co-moderating the event along with Lester Holt.
“This should be Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk. We’d have 10 times the viewership, asking questions that GOP primary voters actually care about and bringing more people into our party,” he said.
Ramaswamy added, “Do you think the Democrats would actually hire Greg Gutfeld to actually host a Democratic debate. They wouldn’t do it.”
This was the first non-Fox News hosted event, with NBC News also partnered with Salem Radio Network and Rumble, and Salem’s Hugh Hewitt joining Holt and Welker as moderators.
Ramaswamy was responding to a pretty open ended question posed by Lester Holt: Why should you, and not Donald Trump, be the GOP nominee?
But Ramaswamy clearly is trying to make a mark, as he trails former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the Trump alternative in the field. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also qualified for the Miami debate.
Ramaswamy tried to engage Welker, saying to her. “The Trump Russia collusion hoax that you pushed on this network for years. Was that real or was that Hillary Clinton made up disinformation? Answer the question. Go.”
A camera showed Welker staring at him, but not responding. Ramaswamy went on to claim that the media “rigged” the 2016 election and they “rigged” the 2020 election, before Holt told him that his time was up.
Ramaswamy also blamed GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel for GOP losses in Tuesday’s elections and previous disappointments, calling the Republican party a “party of losers” and “a cancer of the Republican establishment.”
Trump — billed as the “elephant that is not in the room” in pre-debate commentary — once again skipped the event, and was planning some counter programming with a rally in nearby Hialeah.
As was seen with Ramaswamy’s opening answer, the debate may be the final chance for one or more of the candidates to break through, as the GOP field already has thinned considerably. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who participated in the last debate, dropped out of the race last month.
NBC News is giving candidates a bit more time to answer questions — 90 seconds — in hopes of limiting the instances of contenders talking over one another. That happened at the last debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, when there were unintelligible moments during some of the verbal sparring. Holt warned the candidates at the outset that “continued interruptions may lead to the loss of additional questions.”
