Among many animated remarks delivered from entrepreneur-turned-presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy at Wednesday evening's GOP primary debate in Milwaukee, one may have sounded familiar to those who've followed presidential politics over the last several cycles.
"Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name and what the heck is he doing in the middle of this debate stage?" Ramaswamy asked rhetorically on the debate stage. It was a catchy quip aimed at addressing questions Republican voters might have about the political outsiders crashing of the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
But it was also, as fellow GOP contender Chris Christie pointed out, not an original line.
"I've had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT standing up here, and the last person in one of these debates who stood in the middle of the stage...and said 'What's a skinny guy with an odd last name doing up here'? was Barack Obama and I'm afraid we're dealing with the same type of amateur," Christie said.
While Christie misidentified the location — Obama used the phrase in his keynote speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, not on a debate stage — he's right that Ramaswamy's line was ripped off from Obama's speech that helped him rise to prominence and the 2008 nomination over Hillary Clinton.
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In 2004, Obama referred to himself as "a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him too."
The pro-DeSantis Never Back Down PAC spliced Ramaswamy's and Obama's remarks together and added another barb by pointing out another Ramaswamy line from the debate accusing other candidates of using "memorized, pre-prepared slogans" instead of a "real discussion" of the issues.
What a fraud. Vivek Ramaswamy plagiarizes Barack Obama. #GOPdebate #rumble2024debate pic.twitter.com/9iNxopMlPF
— Never Back Down (@NvrBackDown24) August 24, 2023
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