Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was accused of plagiarizing considered one of Barack Obama’s signature speeches throughout his remarks at Wednesday’s Republican presidential main debate in Wisconsin.
During the controversy, Mr Ramaswamy responded to a query about his political newcomer standing, telling the gang, “Let me just address the question that is on everybody’s mind at home tonight.”
“Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name and what the heck is he doing in the middle of this debate stage?” he continued.
Observers shortly identified how this comment sounded much like Barack Obama’s career-making 2004 speech as a Senate hopeful on the Democratic National Convention, a well-known handle the place Mr Obama spoke of his patriotism and the “hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.”
“‘Skinny guy with a funny name’ sounds very….Obamaesque,” former Biden administration press secretary Jen Psaki wrote on X about Mr Ramaswamy’s debate feedback.
The concern got here up onstage as properly.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie made the comparability to the Obama speech as properly, remarking, “I’m afraid we’re dealing with the same type of amateur standing on the stage tonight.”
Mr Ramaswamy responded with a jab of his personal, saying, “Give me a hug just like you did Obama.”
Former biotech govt Vivek Ramaswamy is seen debating on screens within the media submitting heart on the first Republican candidates’ debate of the 2024 U.S. presidential marketing campaign in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
(REUTERS)
(Mr Christie, whereas he was in workplace, caught warmth from fellow Republicans for pictures displaying him warmly shaking arms and patting the again of Barack Obama because the then-president got here to the state to help with the response to 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. Mr Christie insists the boys by no means truly hugged.)
Other candidates made related assaults on Mr Ramaswamy, a rich businessman and entrepreneur who has seen a current rise in nationwide polls over different better-known candidates like former vice chairman Mike Pence.
The former vice chairman accused Mr Ramaswamy of being a “rookie.”
“When I was the leader of the House conservatives, I balanced budgets and cut taxes when I was governor. Joe Biden has weakened this country at home and abroad,” he mentioned. “Now is not the time for on-the-job training. We don’t need to bring in a rookie.”
Mr Ramaswamy responded that now “everybody’s gotten their memorized, pre-prepared slogans out of the way we can actually have a real discussion now”.
“You have a bunch of people, professional politicians, super PAC puppets following slogans handed over to them by their … Super PACs last week,” he added. “The real choice we face in this primary is this – Do you want a super PAC puppet? Or do you want a patriot who speaks the truth? Do you want incremental reform, which is what you’re hearing about, or do you want revolution? I stand on the side of the American Revolution.”