A reporter who was at the first Republican presidential debate said she spoke with journalists from news outlets like CNN and Politico who are now taking political outsider Vivek Ramaswamy seriously as a 2024 contender.
The Free Press staff writer Olivia Reingold appeared on Thursday's installment of the "Honestly" podcast where host and Free Press founder Bari Weiss asked her panel of guests whether Ramaswamy's "actual agenda" is to be president or to be former President Trump's vice president.
Reingold responded by telling Weiss that Ramaswamy is "truly a man who wants to be president," pointing to his repeated public assertions he doesn't want to be Trump's running mate.
"Also, if you listen to interviews with him, he has been talking about 2028 for months now… He literally says sentences like, ‘Well, in my second term, dot, dot, dot,’" Reingold said. "And so this is someone with massive ambition and just the way he was interacting with voters. I mean, I didn't quite see kissing baby behavior, but it was a hunger in his eyes. The ambition is real."
VIVEK RAMASWAMY WAS THE MOST GOOGLE-SEARCHED CANDIDATE AT THE GOP DEBATE
Weiss then asked whether it was felt in the debate room that the "total political neophyte" Ramaswamy was the "clear winner" of the night and Reingold replied, "Absolutely."
"A lot of being in the actual, kind of, media filing room is, like, schmoozing. You see old colleagues, you see people, you know, and a lot of those people came up to me, you know, people at CNN and Politico, and they were like, ‘I think that Vivek could be our next president,’" Reingold said. "But I think it was the first time that a lot of that crowd had really heard of this guy, or maybe they had heard of him but weren't taking him seriously. Vivek, I think, his ascent can be explained by his authenticity or perceived authenticity, like he's gone - he has a knack for going viral. And he's gone viral a few times for engaging with hecklers."
She continued, "It's very hard, I would say, to be authentic on a debate stage. I think you saw a lot of other candidates using pretty canned or rehearsed lines, but Vivek I got the sense that often he was improvising. And he took positions that, you know, the crowd booed a few times, and he did not hedge at all… He maintained his position. And I think that that's what people admire about him… they feel like they're getting someone who's actually honest about where they stand. He's not trying to water things down."
RAMASWAMY, PENCE CLASH AFTER FORMER VP CALLS GOP NEWCOMER A 'ROOKIE': 'THIS ISN'T COMPLICATED'
The knives were aimed at Ramawswamy Wednesday night as the entrepreneur has seen a rise in the polls. He got into tense clashes with GOP heavy hitters former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Pence took aim at Ramaswamy over his inexperience and Christie lobbed similar attacks by linking the Millennial candidate to Barack Obama, while Haley targeted him over foreign policy.
Ramaswamy was also the most-searched candidate on the internet, according to Google Trends.
In the days leading up to the debate, Ramaswamy had been under intense media scrutiny leading to an on-air battle on CNN, a clash with The Atlantic, even unflattering stories published in conservative media.
During a pre-debate interview with Fox News Digital at the site of the first Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee, he offered advice to other candidates like himself: "If you can't handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen."
"If you're not willing to talk to hostile media means you're probably not ready to sit across the table from Xi Jinping," Ramaswamy said Tuesday. "It actually gives me a sense of energy because I think that makes our country stronger. It makes me stronger as a candidate and as a leader. And so I think it's a good thing. That's the process working as it's supposed to."
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