Republican National Committee boss Ronna McDaniel fired back Thursday at Vivek Ramaswamy after he called on him to resign during a debate the night before.
“He is at 4%. He needs the headlines,” McDaniel told Fox Business Network’s Stuart Varney of the biotech entrepreneur.
Ramaswamy, 38, devoted part of his opening remarks to blasting McDaniel over his role in the RNC following another round of disappointing election results, calling the GOP “the party of losers.”
“Ronna, if you want to get on stage tonight, you want to look GOP voters in the eye and tell them you’re resigning. I will give you my time,” he said at one point.
“The RNC does not do state races, we are a federal committee. So we’re not involved in that race on Tuesday,” McDaniel told Varney. “I know that Vivek is relatively new to the party – he voted for Obama – so he probably doesn’t know that.”
Ramaswamy claims he did not vote in any presidential election between 2008 and 2016 — voting for Libertarian Michael Badnarik in 2004 and former President Donald Trump in 2020.
Ronna McDaniel cautiously responds to Vivek Ramaswamy’s attacks, noting his successful record as Republican chairman in Michigan.AP
The Ohio native averaged 4.7% support in the RealClearPolitics aggregate, placing him fourth among his 2024 GOP peers.
McDaniel also blamed Republicans’ lackluster performance in the messaging battle on the abortion issue.
“We don’t do messaging — that’s a fact. We didn’t do it. And our candidates have lost their message on abortion,” he told FBN.
Vivek Ramaswamy called on McDaniel to resign during Wednesday’s debate. AFP via Getty Images
After Ramaswamy’s jab at McDaniel, the rumor mill claimed the RNC chair had choice words for the candidate.
Timcast.com reported that McDaniel had raged that Ramaswamy was “an a–hole. A total a–hole.”
“He is desperate because he did badly in the election,” he said. “He won’t get a penny from us.”
An RNC spokeswoman denied Thursday that McDaniel had made any such statement.
In response, Ramaswamy’s campaign repeated to The Post that “Ronna Romney should resign,” referring to the RNC chair by her maiden name.
The head of the RNC has chaired the party’s national apparatus since 2017.Getty Images
Ramaswamy himself tweeted: “Ronna should resign. This should not be controversial. Instead, he reportedly said the RNC would not give me ‘one cent’ of funding – which proves my point about RNC corruption. And this morning he lied saying I voted for Obama. Swing-and-miss, but keep trying.”
McDaniel also denied that he confronted Ramaswamy over his shock, contrary to what some photos on social media suggest.
“I have heard this report. I didn’t talk to Vivek. I haven’t spoken to him since that comment,” he told Varney.
The five Republican presidential candidates squared off on stage during the third GOP debate.REUTERS
Ramaswamy also complained about the RNC choosing to partner with NBC News for the third debate, as well as “NBC Nightly News” front-runner Lester Holt and “Meet The Press” moderator Kristen Welker as co-moderators with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
“Think about who moderates this debate,” he said at one point. “This should be Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk. We have 10 times the audience, asking questions that GOP primary voters actually care about, bringing more people into our party.”
“I stand by our choice to use non-conservative media channels. I think NBC did a great job,” McDaniel told CNN Tuesday night. “Forty-two percent of our country is independent. We will not win elections if we sit in an echo chamber[s].”
“If you can’t answer the tough questions, then you probably shouldn’t be running for president,” he added.
Josh Christenson contributed to this report.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
