The quip was related to Vivek Ramaswamy’s description of himself as a “thin man with a strange surname”, reminiscent of a former US president. He is also being criticized on social media for ‘stealing Obama’s style’.
Vivek Ramaswamy smiled and said, “Let me answer the question on everyone’s mind in the house tonight. Who is this thin man with the strange surname, and what is he doing in the middle of this discussion forum?”
“I’ve built billion dollar companies, that’s the American dream”
He said, “I’ll tell you, I’m not a politician. You’re right about that. I’m an entrepreneur. My parents came to this country 40 years ago with no money. I’ve built billion-dollar companies.”
Later in the discussion, Chris Christie mentioned a rumbling comment: “Wait, I’m sick and tired of somebody tonight that looks like ChatGPT.” He was reacting to Ramaswamy’s comment that the climate change agenda is a fraud.
Christie, 60, said, “What a skinny guy with a weird surname is doing here, that was Barack Obama. And I’m afraid we’re dealing with the same kind of amateurish tendencies tonight.”
“Hug me like you hugged Obama”
Ramaswamy replied, “Hug me like you hugged Obama. You’ll help get me elected like Obama. Hug me, bro.”
In 2012, Chris Christie faced criticism for hugging Obama after Hurricane Sandy days before the presidential election. Christie denied that he had ever done so. “I didn’t hug him,” he said.
Ramaswamy ranks second in opinion polls
Opinion polls show that Ramaswamy is second only to former US President Donald Trump. Trump did not participate in yesterday’s debate but still attracted attention.
For the past few weeks, Ramaswamy has been leading by defeating his party’s other presidential contenders. He was also repeatedly attacked by former Vice President Mike Pence. “We don’t need to bring in a rookie,” Pence pointed to.
President Joe Biden also responded to Ramaswamy’s comments on climate change. “By the way, climate change is real,” the president posted on Twitter.
Former Governor Nikki Haley is the only woman in the running so far.
Besides Ramaswamy, the other Indian-American on the podium in the Republican presidential debate was former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, the only woman in the race so far. But Ramaswamy was the victim of most of the attacks during the debate.
On being compared to Barack Obama, Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna posted that former US President Obama “must be smiling” somewhere.
Ramaswamy, a second-generation Indian-American, founded Roivent Sciences in 2014 and led the largest biotech IPOs of 2015 and 2016, according to his bio.