From the Liveblog of
Thursday, November 9, 2023
Vivek Ramaswamy calls Ukraine’s Zelensky a ‘Nazi’ during GOP presidential debate
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy calls Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky a “Nazi” during tonight’s GOP debate in Miami.
Asked whether he’s convinced by Zelensky’s calls for more aid from the US to assist in the war against Russia, Ramaswamy says he is not and claims that a growing number of Republicans are beginning to follow his lead in opposing US involvement in the matter.
“Ukraine is not a paragon of democracy. This is a country that has banned 11 opposition parties. It has consolidated all media into one state TV media arm — that’s not democratic. It has threatened not to hold elections this year unless the US forks over more money — that is not democratic. It has celebrated a Nazi in its ranks, the comedian in cargo pants, a man called Zelensky… That is not democratic,” Ramaswamy says of the Ukrainian president, who is Jewish.
“The regions of Ukraine that are occupied by Russia right now in the Donbas: Luhansk and Donetsk. These are Russian-speaking regions that have not even been part of Ukraine since 2014.”
“To frame this as some kind of battle between good versus evil, don’t buy it,” he claims.
Ramaswamy, attacking Ukraine, calls Zelenskyy "a Nazi … a comedian in cargo pants." He then expresses indifference (to put it charitably) for Russian annexing parts of Ukraine pic.twitter.com/lUjcmzs55f
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 9, 2023
