Trump, DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and More: News and Notes from the Presidential Campaign Trail

A glitchy start to the Ron DeSantis campaign, Tim Scott fires back at “The View,” Vivek Ramaswamy takes on Target, and Nikki Haley gets a CNN Town Hall.

There’s no rest for the weary on the expanded presidential campaign trail.

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U.S. Senator Tim Scott Launches Presidential Campaign as Living Example of the Land of Opportunity

U.S. Senator Tim Scott made it official Monday, launching his campaign for president in the North Charleston, SC, hometown that informed his core belief: That the United States of America is “the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression.”

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Ramaswamy Says Carroll Case Verdict Against Trump Another Attempt to Attack Establishment’s ‘Chief Political Virus’

Former President Donald Trump’s political rivals weighed in Tuesday on a Manhattan jury’s finding that Trump is liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in a civil lawsuit brought decades after the alleged abuse took place. 

Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who declared his campaign for president in February, agreed with critics of the lawsuit who believe it’s another politically charged attempt to diminish the GOP presidential frontrunner ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

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Vivek Ramaswamy Schools Chuck Todd Over His Claim Gender Is ‘a Spectrum’

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy instructed NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd in basic biological principles and the moderator’s claim that gender is “a spectrum.” “Under the age of 18, I think it’s perfectly legitimate to say that we won’t allow genital mutilation or chemical castration through puberty blockers,” Ramaswamy asserted to Todd on Sunday.

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Republican Presidential Hopeful Ramaswamy Lays Out ‘Path to Victory’ — America First 2.0

While pundits bill Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy as a “long-shot” candidate for president, the Republican political outsider isn’t campaigning as a long shot. 

As his poll numbers continue to rise a little more than two months into his campaign, Ramaswamy believes he has a clear path to victory — America First 2.0. 

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CNN Fires Don Lemon After Liberal Host Attacks GOP Candidates on Age and Race

CNN has fired Don Lemon in the wake of the controversial liberal talk show host’s disparaging remarks about the race and age of GOP presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley. As the left-leaning cable news network reported, Monday’s announcement came without explanation and “astonished the media industry.” News of Lemon’s departure followed word that conservative host Tucker Carlson and Fox News had parted ways.

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Haley’s Campaign Haul Considerably Less than the $11 Million Originally Reported

Earlier this month, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s campaign boasted the former South Carolina governor had outraised former President Donald Trump, that Haley was a fundraising “force to be reckoned with.”

Turns out the $11 million Haley was said to have raised didn’t quite pan out. 

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Mike Pence Booed at NRA Convention, Noem Steals the Show

It was a tough start for the old Hoosier and presumptive presidential candidate in Indianapolis. 

Former Vice President Mike Pence stepped on stage at the National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action Leadership Forum Friday afternoon to a small chorus of boos.

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GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Says President Joe Biden Should Pardon Former President Donald Trump

Highly partisan Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is setting a “dangerous precedent” that will likely lead to more “politically targeted prosecutions,” GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy writes in a new op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal. 

If President Joe Biden wants to avoid this danger and truly unify the country, he will pardon his predecessor and potential challenger in 2024, Donald Trump. 

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New Poll Shows Trump, DeSantis Lead in New Hampshire, Followed by Granite State Favorite Son

A new poll in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state shows former President Donald Trump leading the pack, followed at a distance by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and a New Hampshire native son. 

The Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll also shows the youngest candidate in the race, 37-year-old Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy picking up a bit of momentum in the Granite State. 

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Ramaswamy: Taxpayers Shouldn’t Be Footing the Bill for Congress Members’ Hush Money Payoffs

In voicing his opposition to former President Trump’s indictment, tech entrepreneur and 2024 GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy noted that taxpayers have been paying millions to settle sexual harassment claims in Congress.

“If you want to talk about hush money for sexual indiscretions by politicians,” he tweeted Friday, “consider this: in the past 25 years, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights has paid a staggering $18.2 million of *taxpayer dollars* to settle 291 cases of sexual harassment & other misconduct committed by members of Congress.

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GOP Presidential Challenger Vivek Ramaswamy Calls ‘Politically Motivated’ Indictment of Trump ‘Dark Moment in American History’

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is strongly condemning a New York Grand Jury’s indictment of former President Donald Trump, calling it a “dark moment in American history.” Thursday’s indictment follows a years-long investigation of Trump in connection with a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels who claims to have had an affair with Trump years ago. The payment was made in advance of the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied the affair.

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GOP Presidential Candidate Ramaswamy: Department of Education’s Radical Gender Ideology Creates Psychopaths

Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy blasted the U.S. Department of Education for creating “psychopaths” through gender ideology agendas while the nation’s schools are left unprotected from mass shooters like the one that terrorized a Nashville elementary school this week. 

“The real question is why this psychopath in Nashville was able to get into the school in the first place,” the Ohio entrepreneur and anti-woke crusader wrote in a tweet. “We protect green pieces of paper in a bank with more armed guards than we do our kids in schools … There’s more security at a random mall than in a public school.”

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Methodology and Motive Questions Surround Poll Showing DeSantis Ahead of Trump in Iowa

Two polls showing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “running more competitively” against former President Donald Trump in first-in-the-nation nominating states Iowa and New Hampshire are missing some key data, raising questions about the validity of the surveys.

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Nikki Haley Still Silent on Possible Trump Indictment

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has remained silent on the potential indictment of former President Donald Trump, while several of her 2024 opponents – and potential opponents – have weighed in.

Conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence have spoken out against the Manhattan District Attorney’s political agenda they allege is behind the targeting of the former president. Their comments come after Trump announced on Truth Social that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday.

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GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Calls Potential Indictment of Trump a Politically-Driven ‘Dark Moment’ in U.S. History

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says an indictment against fellow candidate and former President Donald Trump would be a “national disaster.”

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‘Corporate Bailouts Must End’: 2024 GOP Candidates Weigh In On Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has sparked comments from 2024 GOP candidates and hopefuls about why the bank failed and what the government should do in its wake.

Declared candidates, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump, as well as contender Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have spoken out about what might have led to SVB’s collapse and against government bailouts. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took control of SVB after its Friday shut down when their stock plummeted following mass withdrawals.

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GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Wants to Fire ‘At Least Half the Federal Workforce’

Arguing that a lot of the U.S. government’s “civil service protections” for federal employees are unconstitutional, entrepreneur and 2024 GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has vowed to end public sector unions. 

“I take a strong view of Article Two of the Constitution,” Ramaswamy said in an interview at CPAC. “It says the president of the United States runs the federal government, runs specifically the executive branch of the federal government. That means, I think, a lot of those civil service protections are unconstitutional.”

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Ramaswamy Rebuffs Alleged Offer to Buy CPAC Straw Poll, Promises Transparency

Vivek Ramaswamy wants to do something normal politicians work to avoid. A successful biotech entrepreneur turned “anti-woke” reformer, the Republican author and activist is running for president while actively trying to break the fourth wall of American campaign politics.  

Candidates don’t generally talk trash about the cadre of operatives and politicos who manipulate the political landscape behind the scenes. But Ramaswamy says his campaign received a call the day after he announced, and the consultant on the other end of the phone offered a prize that would intrigue any upstart presidential candidate: second place in the CPAC straw poll.

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‘Corrupt’: Ramaswamy Says Consultant Promised Second-Place Finish in CPAC Poll for ‘a Few Hundred Thousand Dollars’

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Monday he was offered second place in the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll if he paid a consultant.

“One of the things you see as an outsider is how corrupt the system is. You know something funny about this? I’ve attended CPAC before. I didn’t know it works this way,” Ramaswamy told Fox Business host Stuart Varney. “A consultant calls my campaign shortly after I declared, says ‘Hey, we can get you up to number two on there if you pay us a few hundred thousand dollars.’ I was shocked, you know … there’s a lot of people making money not only off of me, but every presidential campaign.”

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Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Blasts DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg for ‘Tokenizing’ People of Ohio

Ohio resident and newly announced Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy at a campaign stop in Iowa criticized President Joe Biden’s transportation chief for “leadership from behind.” “It’s sort of a token gesture, sort of a cascade of tokenism,” Ramaswamy told The Iowa Star at a campaign stop Thursday in Ankeny.

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