A former top Republican strategist said he’s been to about 40 GOP primary debates in his lifetime before claiming Vivek Ramaswamy delivered what may have been “the worst moment in all of them” on Wednesday night.
Among a series of “unhinged,” headline-making moments from Ramaswamy on the debate stage in Miami, the entrepreneur said the U.S. should not provide additional foreign aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia and called the country’s president a “Nazi.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish.
Stuart Stevens, who worked for Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) during the 2012 presidential race and currently advises the “Never Trump” Republican group The Lincoln Project, told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Thursday that moment led to his “depressing realization.”
“There’s been some really bad moments before with really ridiculous people,” Stevens added. “But that was disgraceful. He should drop out of that race. The party should censor him. He should not be on stage, being able to give him a platform for hate speech.”
Ramaswamy’s poll numbers climbed after his first debate performance in August, but things no longer look as promising for the candidate.
His numbers are down from 12% to 5%, according to 538’s polling aggregator, dropping him down to fourth place in national polls.
Watch Stevens’ analysis on MSNBC below.