Republican 2024 presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy responded to a memo from a super PAC supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) that urged the governor to “attack” the political newcomer.
“I think the GOP sometimes, when you have professional politicians, they use attacks on other candidates as a substitute for a message of their own,” Ramaswamy said on Fox News following the memo’s release Thursday.
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The memos, from the super PAC Never Back Down, were posted on the website of Axiom Strategies, detailing “four basic must-dos” for DeSantis as his team works to revive his campaign ahead of the first 2024 Republican debate next week. Sitting at third on a checklist of four points, “Hammer Vivek Ramaswamy in a response.”
“I’m in this race focused on the message of my own rather than attacking those other candidates,” Ramaswamy said, labeling himself as an “outsider” and “not a professional politician.”
The memo urged the DeSantis campaign to brand his fellow GOP candidate as “FakeVivek” or “Vivek the Fake” during the first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee, listing several attack lines.
“I think we have a choice between super PAC puppets who are being propped up with prepped lines and millions of dollars to go along with it,” Ramaswamy continued, adding that he’s not focused on other candidates.
Ramaswamy has said he is not focused on overly preparing for the Republican National Committee debate, but he has visited eight states in the seven days leading up to the presidential event, speaking from California and stopping in Illinois, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Iowa, with Georgia and South Carolina on the schedule.
“The way I’m preparing is by talking to voters,” Ramaswamy said. “That’s actually what I think matters more than getting prepped memos from super PAC paid political consultants with pre-prepped robotic attack lines against my opponents. No, that’s not how I want to do it.”
“I want to do it by actually talking to voters in this country, having honest conversations, Right and Left included,” Ramaswamy concluded.
DeSantis’s campaign told the Washington Examiner the released document “was not a campaign memo” and they were unaware of it before it was posted.
“This was not a campaign memo and we were not aware of it prior to the article. We are by now well accustomed to the attacks from all sides as the media and other candidates realize Ron DeSantis is the strongest candidate best positioned to take down Joe Biden,” Andrew Romeo, communications director for DeSantis’s campaign, said.
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Never Back Down responded to Vivek’s interview shortly after on X, formerly Twitter, stating, “Vivek is a fraud. He has attacked DeSantis nearly as much as Trump has. He’s lying.”
Vivek is a fraud. He has attacked DeSantis nearly as much as Trump has. He’s lying. https://t.co/v4yU6y4VlB
— Never Back Down (@NvrBackDown24) August 17, 2023
“More money has been spent attacking Ron DeSantis than either the current or former president combined, and we fully expect the candidates at the debate to primarily come after Ron DeSantis because he is the greatest threat to every other Republican primary contender,” Bryan Griffin, press secretary for DeSantis’s presidential campaign, said. “This primary is a two-man race, but only Ron DeSantis can beat Joe Biden and implement the agenda we need to reverse this country’s decline and revive its future.”
