MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle said Thursday the key difference between former President Donald Trump and Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy is the former president is “funny.”
The panel was discussing Ramaswamy, specifically his Wednesday night interview on Fox News in which he was called out by Jesse Watters for some of his foreign policy proposals.
Vanity Fair’s Molly Jong-Fast argued that among Republicans, it has little to do with policy and more about “who is going to tell them the things they like.”
“If it were about policy, DeSantis would be the heir to Trump, right? He ran on Trumpy policies but even more right-wing. This base cares about style, cares about charisma, cares about someone who is going to tell them the things they like,” she said.
“There’s a larger issue here, though, more so than just this annoying creep, Vivek, isn’t the larger issue really what has happened to our politics? He was on a stage with seven other people, some of them pretenders, running for the presidency. We pay enormous amounts of attention to this guy. There’s something wrong with this guy. I mean, he’s got a method, but the method is madness. Yet, we cover him as if it is legitimate.”
“I think Donald Trump primed us for this–” Jong-Fast said before Barnicle jumped in. (RELATED: Vivek Ramaswamy Reveals Why He’s Confident Putin Would Accept His Massive Demand For Ending Ukraine War)
“Donald Trump had only one thing that Vivek does not have. Donald Trump was funny. [Ramaswamy] is not funny.”
Jong-Fast, however, argued Ramaswamy is charismatic.
Trump leads other republican contenders in the polls, with Ramaswamy ticking up following the first republican debate. Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to fend off Ramaswamy for second place in most polls.