Opinion Columnists |

S.E. Cupp: Vivek Ramaswamy won the debate for best in MAGA

Obnoxious. Annoying. Disrespectful. Inexperienced. Conspiratorial.

Those are just a few of the adjectives one could use to describe Republican upstart Vivek Ramaswamy at the first GOP debate of the 2024 presidential election.

It didn’t take long for the relatively unknown businessman-turned-candidate to make his presence known, earning applause and cheers early on, but hardly ingratiating himself to his fellow opponents.

He sparred with many, and seemed to revel in the spotlight, but, to what end? Was this a real star turn that could position Ramaswamy to actually vie for the nomination? Or was it just another attention-seeking performance meant to make him Fox-famous, the likes of which seem to define the new American right?

While all of the descriptors I used above — annoying, obnoxious, conspiratorial, etc. — are hugely off-putting for moderate, issues-based conservatives like me who are desperate to move past Trumpism, tribalism, denialism and demagoguery, we are clearly not the audience. If Ramaswamy’s audience was MAGA world, it seems he put on the perfect show.

He adopted Donald Trump’s pugnacity — he was cocky, aggressive and dismissive of his competitors, baselessly calling them all “bought and paid for,” suggesting former Gov. Chris Christie was just there to become an MSNBC contributor, and that former Gov. Nikki Haley was destined to be on the board of defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. He frequently feigned confusion over whatever former Vice President Pence — whom he called “Mike” more than once — had just said.

Their obvious exasperation over Ramaswamy’s insults, interruptions and gaslighting recalled the 2016 Republican primary, where seasoned politicians like former Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Rand Paul and others had to dodge and endure Trump’s petulant wrench-throwing while hoping to run serious campaigns.

They managed to land some good one-liners against him, though. Pence said now wasn’t the time to elect a rookie, Christie joked that Ramaswamy sounded like ChatGPT, while Haley declared definitively, “You have no foreign policy experience — and it shows.”

Like Trump, Ramaswamy also courted quackery. Fresh off some controversial comments he made about Jan. 6 and Sept. 11 maybe being inside jobs, he sprinkled in some other conspiracies about climate change, and also went where crank voices like Alex Jones and Lara Logan have gone in rooting for Putin in Ukraine.

And he did the most important part of the job to please MAGA, which was to go to cartoonish lengths to suck up to Trump, at one point calling him the best president of the 21st century and demanding his opponents join him in pledging to pardon Trump if he’s convicted on any of the 90-plus charges he’s facing.

Which begs the question, of course, if Trump is so great and must be protected at all costs, why are you running against him, then?

That’s what leads to the assumption that, as Christie said on stage, Vivek just wants to be famous. Afterwards he went on ABC News and called the debate an “unambiguous success” for him.

Trump agreed, posting his appreciation for Ramaswamy’s obsequious words:

“This answer gave Vivek Ramaswamy a big WIN in the debate because of a thing called TRUTH. Thank you Vivek!”

By these metrics — getting attention and especially Trump’s — Ramaswamy certainly “won.” What he won, though, was unclear.

Most headlines focused on his ability to “take center stage,” “grab the spotlight,” and “break through,” admittedly important things for a newcomer to do.

And in a political environment like the new Republican Party, where attention, celebrity, and sucking up to Trump are much more valuable currency than things like experience, seriousness, and competence, the rapping, topless tennis-playing, conspiracy-theorizing Ramaswamy is well-positioned to go far in this primary.

But how far does he want to go? Does he want to beat his idol? Trump won’t allow that, presumably. Or is he secretly hoping Trump goes to prison so he can step into his shoes and become the nominee? Does he then truly believe his extremist positions and unserious campaign antics could win in a general election? (Hey, it’s been done before.)

Or, more likely, is he just using the American democratic process to line his own pockets, sell books and merch, see his name splashed across a media he insists is corrupt, and ultimately land a cushy job alongside Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro on Fox, where he’ll get paid to professionally push lies and conspiracy theories to an unwitting audience?

In this Republican Party, few things still surprise. While he won’t have my vote, based on his performance Wednesday night Vivek Ramaswamy makes a terrific MAGA candidate — unqualified, unserious, unlikable…and therefore utterly electable.

S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.