'Party of losers': 6 highlights from the third Republican debate
Vivek slams RNC chair, laments 2023 election results
At the start of the debate, candidates were asked why voters should select them over Trump, who remains the frontrunner in the race with less than two-and-a-half months until the Iowa caucuses kick off the presidential primary season.
Ramaswamy used his opening remarks to declare that he was "upset about what happened last night." In Tuesday's elections, Republicans came up short in several key races and ballot initiatives one year after the 2022 midterms failed to produce the results the GOP hoped for two years after President Joe Biden defeated Trump.
"We've become a party of losers at the end of the day," he said. "It is a cancer in the Republican establishment."
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He pointed the finger at RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who has served in that position since the beginning of Trump's presidency in 2017.
"Since Ronna McDaniel took over as Chairwoman of the RNC in 2017, we have lost 2018, 2020, 2022," he said. "No red wave that never came. We got trounced last night in 2023, and I think that we have to have accountability in our party."
Ramaswamy invited McDaniel to "come on stage tonight" and "look the GOP voters in the eye and tell them you resign," vowing to yield his time to her if she accepted his invitation. In addition to calling out McDaniel, the head of the organization that commissions the presidential debates, Ramaswamy took a shot at the moderators.
"This should be Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk," he said. "We'd have 10 times the viewership, asking questions that GOP primary voters actually care about and bring in more people into our party."
The candidate suggested that the moderators were too biased to moderate the debate effectively, asking, "Do you think the Democrats would actually hire [Fox News host] Greg Gutfeld to host a Democratic debate?"
"They wouldn't do it," he said.
Ramaswamy took a shot at "the corrupt media establishment," slamming Welker for pushing "the Trump-Russia collusion hoax." Directing a question at Welker, Ramaswamy asked, "Was that real or was that Hillary Clinton made-up disinformation?"
While the crowd erupted into applause, Ramaswamy declared, "This is how we get our country back."
"We need accountability because this media rigged the 2016 election. They rigged the 2020 election with the Hunter Biden laptop story, and they're going to rig this election unless we have accountability," he stated.
Welker declined to answer the question, and Holt immediately transitioned to Christie.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
