Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy issued a warning to Republicans this week that they need to be aware of some “hard realities” around the way they message their criticisms of Vice President Kamala Harris now that she is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
“The bottom line is, I think what’s happened is a lot of Republicans were caught by surprise after the convention,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital on Friday. “That’s resulted in some reactive steps that I don’t think all make sense. And I think they’re actually hurting us.”
Ramaswamy spoke to Fox News Digital about a viral comment he posted Thursday on X that was seen by over 3 million people that addressed issues and concerns he has seen with the way Republicans are talking about the matchup between Harris and former President Trump.
Ramswamy’s first point and concern is that Republicans are calling for Biden to step down or be removed from office, using the argument that if he is not capable of running for president, he isn’t capable of serving as president.
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Vivek Ramaswamy warned Republicans this week about how they criticize Vice President Kamala Harris. (Getty Images)
“I think this makes absolutely zero sense and here’s why,” Ramaswamy explained. “Kamala Harris is unproven as a political leader, let alone as the U.S. president. Why put her in a position as the U.S. president with all the benefits of incumbency? Oval Office addresses, God forbid, to even change policy or foreign policy, to be able to create circumstances that make her look better. That’s one of the advantages that many incumbent presidents, the sad truth is, have used throughout American history.”
Ramaswamy said calling on Biden to step down is “another example” of Republicans being “reactive,” which ends up “hurting our chances rather than helping us.”
“It’s not going to be good for America and it’s not going to be good for Republican electoral prospects if Kamala Harris is the President of the United States of America for even a short period of time, for even a minute,” Ramaswamy said. “I don’t think that’s something we should want, and it doesn’t make sense and that’s why I called it out.”
Many Republicans have focused on Harris’ record as a prosecutor, which Ramaswamy warned could backfire if they focus too much on attacks that she “locked up” too many people for petty crimes.
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Vivek Ramaswamy, chairman and co-founder of Strive Asset Management and 2024 Republican presidential candidate, speaks during a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 3, 2024. (Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“So look, this is the other category of criticisms I see coming, even from some conservatives, saying that she locked up too many people while she was a prosecutor,” he said. “This is the wrong line of attack. It doesn’t make sense.“
Ramaswamy continued, “In fact, one of the images that Kamala Harris is trying to project is that she’s somehow going to be a law-and-order presidential candidate. I find that laughable. Look at under the Democratic regime, including policies that she has supported, clear the jails, defund the police. That’s resulted in a wave of rampant crime in this country. People in the United States of America, across the aisle and both camps, are dead set against this wave of crime. But if against that backdrop, Republicans are criticizing her for locking too many people up, it doesn’t make sense because it legitimizes the otherwise laughable claim that she’s a law-and-order candidate.“
Republicans have also accused Harris of covering up Biden’s health issues while at the same time accusing the vice president of orchestrating a soft “coup” to remove him from the ticket. Ramswamy told Fox News Digital those two messages don’t mesh.
“The main point is what voters really care about is the future,” he said. “What are we actually going to deliver? And the more we focus on bickering on that past political missteps or whatever from the Democratic side, the more small-minded we’re going to be seen as being.
“On one hand, you have Republicans saying that Kamala Harris covered up for Joe Biden. She was covering for him and telling the public that he was actually a great president, when in fact he wasn’t cognitively capable. On the other hand, at the same time, we’re saying that Kamala staged this coup against Biden. It doesn’t make sense to many independent voters to say both of those things at the same time. They’re self-contradictory. And if we say things that don’t make sense, we’re more likely to lose votes, which is the thing that I care most about. So I come back to the basic point. That’s not how we’re going to win this election. We’re not going to win this election by picking at these nit-picking… ‘inside baseball’ political criticisms of Kamala. It doesn’t matter. The voters don’t care.”
Vice President Kamala Harris disembarks at the Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee on Tuesday. (Reuters/Kevin Mohatt/Pool)
Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital that Harris is not the “biggest risk” the Republican side faces, but rather the “shenanigans on the Democratic side.”
“The voters don’t love Kamala Harris on her own terms,” Ramaswamy said. “We know that because even when she was running in the Democratic primary, she didn’t even make it to the Iowa caucus. I was an unknown 37-year-old businessman, ran for office for the first time as U.S. president last year. I have more delegates that have supported me for U.S. president than Kamala Harris ever has had. That’s because voters don’t find her compelling. So it’s not that Kamala Harris is our biggest risk.”
When asked if some Republicans are underestimating Harris’ ability to win, Ramswamy said that “complacency” is always a concern.
“You got to compete like you’re behind, or else you soon will be,” he said. “We’re not up against a candidate. It’s not Kamala. It’s not Joe. It’s not any other individual candidate. We are up against a machine and the more we understand that, we have formidable opponents. Let’s take stock of some sobering realities. Republicans have lost devastating defeats relative to expectations in 2018, 2020, 2022.
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“I don’t want to see the same thing happen in 2024. So, you know what? ‘Fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice. Shame on me.’ The old adage means something for a reason. I think our movement needs to wake up and say that winning by a little bit shouldn’t even be our goal. We’ve got to win by a landslide, and a landslide minus some shenanigans in margin is still going to be a victory. That’s the attitude we need.”
Ramaswamy explained his belief that Democrats were waiting until after the Republican National Convention to have “full information,” and that it is understandable Republicans were caught “flat-footed,” but ultimately they will be victorious in November if they stay focused.
“It doesn’t matter because Kamala Harris—we can easily defeat Kamala Harris in the same landslide we were going to defeat Joe Biden on,” he said. “But it’s not going to be by nit-picking on random political criticisms of her. I think those could backfire. I think the way we’re going to do it is by articulating our own vision of who we are and what we stand for. And if so, we win this thing not only in a landslide, but we unite this country and revive our country, which is something we’re hungry for.”