Who is Vivek Ramaswamy? Star of Republican debate

trump of course decided to skip With his landslide lead in the polls, the Republican presidential primary debate begins. DeSantis emerged, but was overshadowed by political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy for much of the night.

There was no shortage of aggressive performances from others on stage. Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have been aggressive at every opportunity.

Moderator took over an hour to ask about Trump’s legal fight, previews discussion via video Atlanta jail, he will turn himself in on charges Thursday.

The former president arranged a counter-plan to air an interview on X (formerly known as Twitter), while his team said the debate was essentially an audience debate to see who would be best suited to run his campaign partner.

Here’s what we took away from the action-packed evening:

Vivek in the spotlight

Center stage, and at the center of the debate’s fiercest communication, was a 38-year-old man who, just a few months ago, no one expected to be on the scene — a Novice Candidates and Tech Entrepreneurs His name was Vivek Ramaswamy.

Although Ramaswamy trails Trump by a wide margin, he has risen in recent polls and is neck and neck with DeSantis at center stage. As he showed his approach to getting the video ready, the message, he was quick to explain why — talking about how his impoverished parents immigrated to the U.S. and gave him the opportunity to create a multibillion-dollar company.

Then Ramaswamy started to throw his elbows. At one point he declared, “I’m the only one on stage who doesn’t get bought off and doesn’t cost money.” He blasted his rivals as “super PAC puppets” who use “off-the-shelf, pre-prepared slogans.” “Come and attack him.

He seems to be betting that primary voters are more likely to say something memorable than do something. His competitors knew nothing about it.

“This is not the time for on-the-job training,” Pence said. “We don’t need to bring in rookies.”

Christie chimed in during one of Ramaswamy’s fiercest attacks. “I’ve had enough of a guy standing here sounding like ChatGPT,” Christie said, adding that Ramaswamy’s opening line, a scrawny guy with a hard-to-pronounce name, reminded him of his ex. President Barack Obama, not a Republican stage compliment.Ramaswamy responded by asking Christie to “hug”, referring to the Obama Visits Christie State After Hurricane Sandy.

Haley attacked Ramaswamy’s argument that the U.S. should not support Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression. “Under your watch, you’re going to make America less safe. You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows,” Haley told him, standing to his left.

ride trump

It took the candidates more than an hour to confront the elephant, who was not in the room.

When they did, most of the participants raised their hands to say they would support Trump even if he was convicted. Before that, the host pointed out that Trump faced more than 90 criminal charges in different cases in four jurisdictions.

Ramaswamy vowed to pardon Trump if given the chance.

“Let’s just be honest. I believe President Trump is the best president of the 21st century. It’s true,” Ramaswamy said.

Christie, a former U.S. attorney who frequently opposed Trump, fought back aggressively despite being booed at times by viewers.

Even if people disagree with the criminal charges, “this behavior is not consistent with the duties of the President of the United States,” Christie said.

Divided on abortion after Dobbs era

Republicans on stage didn’t downplay their backlash against abortion rights when given the chance. But the candidates are clearly divided on whether to push for a federal abortion ban.

Haley called on her opponents to be honest with voters that a federal law imposing an abortion ban in all states may never pass in a narrowly divided Congress. She said the issue should be sent back to the states. She also made a personal appeal.

“We need to stop demonizing this issue,” Haley said. “If a woman has an abortion, we’re not going to put her in jail.”

On the other side: Pence, an evangelical Christian who has long opposed abortion rights. Both Pence and Scott have publicly supported a nationwide ban on abortions of at least 15 weeks. Pence said Haley’s call for consensus among the states “is antithetical to leadership.”

“This isn’t just a state issue. It’s an ethical issue,” he said.

DeSantis, who had just signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida this spring, did not take a stand on the federal ban when asked directly. He said he was “proud” to have signed the state’s abortion ban, one of the strictest in the nation.

Democrats may be comfortable with the discussions. They already plan to make abortion a central issue in next fall’s election.

DeSantis backstage

The governor of Florida is the top contender on stage in the polls. During the debate, however, Ramaswamy, who took on most of the attacks and fought others on stage, appeared to be stuck in the background.

DeSantis rarely weighs in on arguments, preferring to bide his time so he can make a lengthy statement. His critics — Trump in particular — have accused him of being clumsy and dull, and he has had little chance of dispelling that impression.

That’s not to say DeSantis didn’t have moments of brilliance. He seized on questions about liberal billionaire George Soros, a major donor to left-leaning causes and a frequent target of conservatives.DeSantis pointed out that he was the only one on stage Remove Democrats Attorney They were elected through donations from the Soros network.

“As president, we’re going to go after all of these people because they’re compromising the quality of life,” DeSantis said.

But even as DeSantis managed to walk the tightrope of his campaign — avoiding direct criticism of Trump while laying out why he would be better off — he was pulled back to reality.

Candidates were asked whether Pence was right to get Congress to certify that Joe Biden won the presidency on Jan. 6, 2021. DeSantis was so quiet that the host had to ask twice for his answer. “I’ve answered the question, Mike did his job, and I have nothing against him,” said DeSantis, who believes Democrats want Republicans to talk about Jan. 6 while turning to the future, saying the election must revolve around January 20, 2025 – The day the next president will be sworn in.

Bret Baier, one of the moderators, retorted, “Donald Trump beat you in the polls by 30 to 40 points, so that’s something we have to deal with.”

It’s unclear whether DeSantis has changed that dynamic. With about four months to go before voting begins, he probably doesn’t have many other major opportunities to do so.

lonely woman on stage

With eight candidates on stage, it was a challenge to stand out. But one person stood out immediately — Hailey — because she was the only woman there, and the only one not wearing a dark suit and Republican red tie.

Citing what Margaret Thatcher said about how women do their jobs when men do the talking, Haley highlighted the importance of educating girls and argued that keeping trans girls out of women’s sports is a women’s problem. “I’m going to fight for girls all day long because strong girls make strong women and strong women make strong leaders,” Hayley said.

She also made explicit reference to the general election, though her odds in the primary remain slim. Some of her most memorable moments came when she argued with Ramaswamy over whether the U.S. should provide arms and money to Ukraine.

Refuting Trump’s sham election claim

Trump has all but made declaring he won the 2020 election a precondition for anyone running for his party’s nomination. In 2022, Republican candidates were quick to express disbelief in the 2020 election results in multiple debates.

Not Wednesday. Instead, candidate after candidate praised Pence — who could end up being a witness in a federal indictment against Trump — for rejecting the former president’s Jan. 6 request to stop certifying Biden as the victor. Only Ramaswamy refused to support Pence.

“Mike Pence represents the Constitution, and he deserves not grudging honor, but our gratitude as Americans,” Christie said.

Pence has been repeatedly attacked by Trump and pursued by hecklers who remain angry that he did not try to keep Trump in office.While an Associated Press poll earlier this month found that 7 in 10 Americans think Biden won the election legitimately, 57 percent of Republicans think disagree with the statement. It reflects both Trump repeating his electoral lies and the conservative media world parroting them, or at least avoiding refuting them.

Fox News recently paid $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by voting machine company Dominion Systems for airing lies about the 2020 election, so hearing such strong statements online (including Pence’s about Trump) final statement) is particularly egregious.

“He asked me to put him above the Constitution, and I chose the Constitution,” Pence said of the former president.

unruly incident at times

Things started to creep in as candidates lashed out at Biden’s economic policies. But Beyer and co-host Martha McCallum sometimes struggled to control the situation when participants turned on each other.

DeSantis helped set the tone by rejecting the moderator’s request for candidates to raise their hands if they believed human actions were causing climate change.

“We’re not school kids,” DeSantis charged. The moderator dropped their request.

At one point, Ramaswamy and Haley sparred with each other for more than 30 seconds when the topic turned to foreign policy. The candidates shouted and waved their fingers at each other. The moderator is silent.

Beyer and McCallum let the candidates drive the action for most of the night — which is usually what viewers want, though some critics wish things were more orderly.