Republican presidential candidates – with the notable exception of frontrunner Donald Trump – convened for the first 2024 debate, and panelists on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" discussed the best and worst performances.
The panelists agreed that Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) fared surprisingly poorly and Nikki Haley exceeded expectations, and contributor Mike Barnicle panned upstart candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, whose recent surge in the polls landed him at center stage and who seemed to aggravate all of his rivals.
"It was a revealing and depressing performance, a two-hour performance," Barnicle said. "Chris Christie, I think, was one of the people who scored some points. I don't know with whom, but he certainly scored some points. Nikki Haley, another. We've seen her, she was very strong. The former vice president, Mike Pence, had a pretty good night. The rest of them, including the incredibly annoying Vivek Ramaswamy – unbelievably annoying human being, made for a long, long night."
Ramaswamy's rivals seemed to agree, as Daily Beast columnist pointed out in his own scathing review of the venture capitalist's performance on the biggest stage of his political career to date.
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"Out of the gate, he looked pompous and oleaginous, with what can only be described as a smarmy, shit-eating grin that belied his sharp elbows. Regarding the slickness, Christie observed that he sounded 'like ChatGPT,'" Walsh wrote. "And regarding the elbows, at one point, even Sen. Tim Scott—you know, the optimistic guy who has a reputation for being too nice—even accused him of 'being childish.'"
"Ramaswamy’s first line — 'I want to just address the question that is on everyone’s mind at home tonight. Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name?'—essentially plagiarized Barack Obama," Walsh added. "Christie, who was on the ball, called him on it."
Barnicle was similarly unimpressed by the debate's Fox News moderators, whom he said ignored the political crisis looming over this election.
"But my problem with watching the debate was this debate opened," Barnicle said. "[Host] Joe [Scarborough] alluded to this a couple of moments ago, when he was talking about what's happened to the debt and the deficits in this country over the last five or six years, due largely to Donald Trump. This country has suffered great damage, none more so than the injection into the political bloodstream that the election of 2020 was fixed, was rigged. How do you begin a debate with any of the candidates, Republican or Democrat, without asking them the yes-or-no question, was Joseph R. Biden legitimately elected president of the United States, yes or no? That way, we know where you're going to go on continuing this poison that's in the political culture today. No one asked that."
Watch the segment below or at this link.
08 24 2023 07 10 13youtu.be
