This moment in the third Republican debate sums up the entire two hours: Vivek trolling, Nikki scolding and the rest of them flailing. Vivek Ramaswamy made it his mission to be as unserious and obnoxious as possible, while Nikki Haley glowered.
"She made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time, so you might want to take care of your family first," Ramaswamy jabbed.
Haley wasn't having it. "Leave my daughter out of your voice--"
To which Vivek snarked,"The next generation of Americans are using it, that's actually the point."
At this point the whole audience was booing and just making noise as Haley looked over and said, "You are scum."
She's not wrong. He was scum all night. He started out by saying the debate should have been moderated by Joe Rogan, Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson before attacking the moderators by name. He called President Zelenskyy, the Jewish president of Ukraine, a Nazi, though he denies he was referring to Zelenskyy. It's hard to imagine how this statement: "“[Ukraine] celebrated a Nazi in its ranks — the comedian in cargo pants, a man called Zelensky — doing it in their own ranks. That is not democratic,” is referring to anyone but the president of Ukraine, but he is denying it.
And so it went. It was an unserious debate with the only occasional serious answers coming from Haley and Christie, and only on Ukraine.
Tim Scott waxed eloquent about his momma without mentioning his serious girlfriend, Ron DeSantis had a bad case of Nixon sweat lip, and all of them with the exception of Vivek Ramaswamy tried to at least put the veneer of gravity into the debate.
Ramaswamy, however, was just a troll. He closed by suggesting that Biden would drop out and Michelle Obama would run in his place, which is particularly laughable given the precarious status of the current Republican frontrunner.
If Republicans have a lick of sense (and they don't), they'll cancel any future debates, toss Ramaswamy out of the party and just move to general election mode.
Here's Vivek's closing statement, just because it is entirely absurd.
Ramaswamy ends his closing statement with a conspiracy theory about Joe Biden not really being in charge and that Michelle Obama might step in and run for him pic.twitter.com/yOoEOzQhgh
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 9, 2023
