In the spirit of the late Matthew Perry’s Chandler Bing: Could Vivek Ramaswamy be any more condescending? (Watch the video below.)
The Republican presidential candidate’s exchange with CNN’s Abby Phillip Wednesday over China and Taiwan devolved into a morass of mansplaining.
Perhaps Ramaswamy was already annoyed by a CNN story earlier in the day pointing out his stagnant polling in the single digits, campaign resource juggling, and a confrontational third debate that saw his favorability rating plummet.
Ramaswamy has said the U.S. should defend Taiwan ― a semiconductor manufacturer critical to U.S. interests ― against a China invasion until the U.S. attains semiconductor independence. Then, he said, the U.S. should resume its policy of “strategic ambiguity.”
“Just as a final point of clarity on this,” Phillips said. “Once the United States achieves semiconductor independence, do you believe it will be in the United States’ national interest to deter China from invading Taiwan?”
“We will evaluate at that point in time. It will not be preferable for China to invade Taiwan even then,” he replied.
“That’s not an answer to my question,” the host said.
Phillip pressed Ramaswamy for a direct answer multiple times, and then he became very patronizing (which wouldn’t be his first time with a female anchor on CNN).
Here’s a partial transcript from Mediate:
RAMASWAMY: Abby, I think you don’t understand. Abby, do you even know what ‘strategic ambiguity’ means right now?
PHILLIP: I’m just asking you a simple question.
RAMASWAMY: Do you understand the current posture? The current posture is strategic ambiguity and I have a feeling that you don’t know what that is. So I’m happy to educate you if you’re interested.
Strategic ambiguity will be what we resume. It’s the current status quo, and that’s what we will resume after we’ve achieved semiconductor independence. It’s that simple.
PHILLIP: A simple answer to that question would actually be a yes or no.
Fast-forward to 4:10 to catch the moment or watch the whole segment here:
Tonight GOP candidate @VivekGRamaswamy refuses to say whether deterring China from invading Taiwan would be in the US national security interest after reaching “semiconductor independence” which he says will happen in 2028.
Note: a few months ago, he said when US achieves… pic.twitter.com/XaWIIIMIF5
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) November 16, 2023
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