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It’s Vivek Ramaswamy’s turn to face the arrows, and they’re coming fast and furious after he stole the show at the first Republican presidential debate.
Mr. Ramaswamy’s combination of Trumpian iconoclasm and a millennial generation style has intrigued voters but has given the rest of the candidates plenty to criticize as they label him naive and perilous.
The blasts started at the debate, particularly from former Vice President Mike Pence.
“Every time Vivek opens his mouth, he either lies or expresses a policy stance that is so dangerous to the United States that it needs to be called out,” Pence spokesperson Devin O’Malley told The Washington Times.
The 38-year-old businessman is the most dynamic candidate in the field not named Donald Trump, and Mr. Trump’s absence at the debate made Mr. Ramaswamy the center of attention for Mr. Pence, former Ambassador Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Ramaswamy spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said her boss has his rivals running scared.
“We’ve had a government that for far too long has lied to us, and Vivek is an outsider who is saying the quiet part out loud. He’s unearthing the truth to the American people,” Ms. McLaughlin said.
“That’s a direct threat to the lifestyle and deals of the Establishment: Pence, Christie, Haley and [former George W. Bush adviser Karl] Rove.”
That message has carried Mr. Ramaswamy to third place in national primary polling, trailing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and far behind Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump’s numbers in most national surveys are higher than the rest of the field combined.
Still, Mr. Ramaswamy says he is best positioned to carry the Make America Great Again flag to the next level.
Whether he has staying power remains to be seen, particularly with a Republican electorate that has a history of rushing to the next intriguing candidate and chewing up the newcomer before moving on.
That was the case in the 2012 primary race. Voters in Iowa, whose caucuses kick off the primary season, seemed to test every option — including Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain — other than eventual nominee Mitt Romney.
In 2016, Republican voters searched for the best figure to confront Mr. Trump toe-to-toe before giving up and embracing the disruptive force of MAGA.
Newcomers also draw intense media scrutiny.
The New York Times published an opinion piece blasting Mr. Ramaswamy’s “articulate ignorance.” The Atlantic called his foreign policy a “fantasy.” Even musical artist Eminem took notice and issued a cease-and-desist order to stop using the rapper’s music on the campaign trail. Mr. Ramaswamy became the first presidential contender to rap one of his songs at the Iowa State Fair.
Another yardstick of Mr. Ramaswamy’s momentum is Mr. Trump’s declaration that he would be open to tapping the businessman as his running mate. That role used to belong to Mr. Pence.
Mr. Ramaswamy’s rivals say he twists his positions because he lacks any experience in campaigning or governing.
“He looks to me to be the worst of what politicians are characterized to be,” Mr. Christie said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program. “Someone who says one thing, does another and then when you call them, like I did on the negative things he said about Donald Trump on Jan. 6, in his book, he said he didn’t say it.”
With Mr. Pence and Ms. Haley as the foils, foreign policy has become a particular battleground.
Mr. Ramaswamy’s opponents complain that he doesn’t show enough support for Israel, given his call to have America’s closest Middle Eastern ally stand on its own by 2028 without U.S. aid.
They say he is on the wrong side of the Russia-Ukraine war, with opposition to more foreign assistance and his vision of a peace deal allowing Russia to keep parts of Ukraine and preventing the Eastern European nation from joining NATO. He also would require Russia to end its military alliance with China.
Mr. Ramaswamy says weakening the Russia-China alliance would deter Chinese President Xi Jinping from invading Taiwan.
“In return, we will reopen economic relations with Russia,” Mr. Ramaswamy said in a recent speech. “Do we trust Vladimir Putin? No, we don’t. Does Putin trust us? No, he does not. But Putin can trust us to follow our self-interests just as we can trust Putin to follow his.
“This is how we restore realism in our modern foreign policy,” he said.
Ms. Haley said Mr. Ramaswamy’s take is “totally off.”
“When you have somebody on stage that is going to say, ‘I am just going to let Russia have this part of Ukraine and I am going to tell you can’t do anything with China going forward,’ that is just naive,” she said. “It is completely naive.”
Mr. Pence also critiqued Mr. Ramaswamy’s approach to Russia and said his rival is trodding a dangerous path by echoing some of Mr. Trump’s claims about the way Jan. 6, 2021, should have played out.
“You’ve got a candidate in the Republican primary that not only thought I had some ability to delay certification that the Constitution never allowed but also suggested that the solution would be a four-part national election reform package,” Mr. Pence said in Iowa. “And I just want to tell all of you folks, you never want Washington, D.C., stepping in and telling Iowa how to run your elections.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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