Pence’s Poke at Ramaswamy’s Youth Raises Age Again as a Campaign Issue

M.D. Kittle

Ohio entrepreneur and GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has taken a lot more flak from his opponents as he rises in the primary polls.

But the political outsider and first millennial to run for the Republican Party presidential nomination is starting to draw fire about his youth — from none other than former Vice President Mike Pence, Ramaswamy’s elder by 26 years.

In an interview this week with the New Hampshire Union Leader, Pence claimed he was “deeply offended” by Ramaswamy’s recent comments accusing the federal government of failing to tell the truth about the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“I haven’t seen evidence to the contrary, but do I believe everything the government told us about it? Absolutely not,” Ramaswamy said. “Do I believe the 9/11 Commission? Absolutely not.”

Pence took issue, calling Ramaswamy’s comments “conspiracy theories” that “dishonor the service and sacrifice of our armed forces who fought against our enemies determined to kill us.”

More so, Pence, who turned 64 in June, took a shot at Ramaswamy’s age — and by implication assumed inexperience.

“I understand he was probably in grade school on 9/11 and I was on Capitol Hill,” said Pence of Ramaswamy, who turned 38 on Wednesday.

Ramaswamy actually was in high school at the time of the terrorist attacks, graduating less than two years later, a fact he’s frequently noted on the campaign trail. Pence, was a freshman congressman at the time, in his early 40s.

Not one to shy away from debate, Ramaswamy fired back at Pence, saying he finds it “ offensive that our government repeatedly lies to us.”

“Here’s the TRUTH: the FBI quietly declassified documents in 2021 that definitively reveal the government lied to the public about basic facts of Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11, until documents were declassified and they changed their story 20 years later,” Ramaswamy wrote on his X account on Wednesday.

“There’s no such thing as a noble lie. With all due respect to the former VP, the reason the people don’t trust the government is because the government doesn’t trust the people,” he concluded.

He didn’t mention Pence’s poke at his age. He didn’t need to.

Ramaswamy has made his youth — he’s just three years over the constitutional minimum age to seek the presidency — more than a tacit part of his campaign.

At the core of his campaign, according to Ramaswamy, is a mission to reach young voters who he says are “hungry for a purpose.”

“I’ll give that to them. I’m the first-ever millennial GOP candidate for President & I take that seriously,” he tweeted in late April, two months after he launched what many pundits have called an improbable quest for the White House.

Ramaswamy plans to address the Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) “Revolution 2023” youth conference in Orlando, Florida, on Friday, underscoring his campaign to connect with younger voters.

The anti-woke crusader has sold a lot of books taking on the Left’s never-ending identity politics in America. Ramaswamy insists many younger voters have grown fatigued by the constant bickering of the two dominant parties —parties effectively led by a 77-year-old former President Donald Trump and an octogenarian President Joe Biden. More than six in 10 Americans believe the 80-year-old Biden lacks the mental sharpness to be the president.

Age, particularly older age, has been a gnawing issue on the 2024 presidential campaign trail.

Former UN Ambassador and GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley has called for a mental competency test for politicians over the age of 75. Former CNN host Don Lemon got into hot water suggesting Haley, at 51, is past her “prime.”

Ramaswamy, the youngest major candidate in the crowded field of presidential contestants, has criticized Haley’s call for a competency test for senior officeholders.

“Respectfully, @NikkiHaley is dead wrong about competence tests for candidates over 75. If young candidates want to win, they should do it by winning the battle of ideas, not using force to eliminate competition. That’s a tactic of the other side. No more identity politics, period,” Ramaswamy tweeted in February.

The marketplace of ideas has been the political newcomer’s overriding message over the course of his nearly six months on the campaign trail—some veteran political consultants may chalk such expressions up to youthful exuberance, the high-mindedness of inexperience.

It’s hard to argue the results, however.

While Ramaswamy and the rest of the GOP field are running far behind front-runner Trump, the Ohio biotech entrepreneur has made significant inroads. He’s emerged from near-obscurity to a third-place showing in the national polls, according to RealClearPolitics’ latest average. Trump dominates, at nearly 54 percent support, followed distantly by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, with just under 16 percent. Ramaswamy has climbed to 5.9 percent, nearly a full point ahead of the elder Pence, polling in fourth place at 5 percent.

In a Harvard-Harris poll last month, Ramaswamy scored double-digit support (10 percent) and trailed DeSantis (12 percent) by just two points.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that Pence, who has saved most of his political fire for his former running mate, has begun taking aim at the millennial candidate.

Pro-DeSantis influencers also have taken out the knives lately amid Ramaswamy’s rising polling fortunes.

Leading the way is John Cardillo, a former Newsmax TV host who was a pro-Trump pundit until he suddenly wasn’t. Cardillo has gone all-in on the Florida governor’s White House run, and has lashed out at Ramaswamy.

“We’re surging in the polls, the knives are coming out,” Ramaswamy wrote on his X account. “The opposition research machines are churning.”

Pence’s shot at Ramaswamy’s youth is a different twist, however. It likely won’t be the last such dig at a below-40 candidate who believes to have found success doing what a lot of Republicans have struggled to do: Connect with the younger voter.

More than his age, it is arguably Ramaswamy’s energy that is catching attention. Like Haley, he’s effectively made first-in-the-nation nominating states Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina second homes. But Ramaswamy seems to be everywhere at the same time.

After his address to the Young Americans for Liberty on Friday in Florida, he’s back in Des Moines at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday then back in New Hampshire on Sunday for a backyard barbecue with Granite State voters.

He still may be a long shot in a Trump-dominated race. But Ramaswamy definitely has the kind of confidence that not only comes with youth, but success.

“Maybe it happened a tad earlier than we expected,” he told NBC News in an interview in July. “But at the time we started this race, I believed I was running to be the next president of the United States and lead a national revival.”

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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” by Vivek Ramaswamy. 

 

 

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