Who is Vivek Ramaswamy? What to know about the youngest major Republican candidate in history
“This is our moment to start running to something, to our vision of what it means to be an American today,” Vivek Ramaswamy says.
He’s addressing the first TV debate of the 2024 presidential election.
The 38-year-old business investor is the youngest major Republican candidate in history – and he has no political experience.
He thinks Trump is “the best president of the 21st century” and – if he wins – has vowed to pardon him if he is convicted of federal crimes.
His “anti-woke” agenda focuses on recapturing the American dream from a country “lost” to “reverse racism”, “climatism”, “Covidism” and “gender ideology”.
Let’s take a closer look at who he is…
What matters to him?
Ramaswamy is a political novice. He considered running to be a senator in his native Ohio in 2022 but decided against it.
He announced his candidacy for the 2024 Republican nomination in February on Tucker Carlson Tonight. The right-wing, anti-immigrant, Trump-supporting commentator had his regular Fox News show cancelled in April with little explanation.
Although he is an avid Trump supporter himself, having appeared outside the courthouse for two of the three cases lodged against the former president so far, Ramaswamy has set about presenting himself as his successor.
He says he is prepared to go further than Mr Trump on several issues.
Outside the courthouse in Florida when Donald Trump was arraigned
Instead of just building a wall along the US-Mexico border, for example, he said he would station soldiers at half-mile intervals along it.
He has promised to abolish the FBI, redeploying staff to what he believes are more effective agencies such as the US Marshals Service, so they can focus on issues like child sex trafficking.
In a huge departure from Western sentiment on Ukraine, he has said he would support a deal allowing Russia to retain what territory it has.
The Republican hopeful is soon to release a “comprehensive foreign policy vision” on Russia, China, Taiwan, India and other parts of Asia.
He has also drawn controversy for some of his comments, such as suggesting that federal agents may have been on planes involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
What has he said?
Ramaswamy has published two books – Woke Inc and Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence.
In them he compares the “woke left” to “psychological slavery”, claiming that like a “new secular religion” it “says your gender, race and sexual orientation determines who you are and what you can achieve in life”.
“America is a systemically racist nation. That if you’re black you’re inherently disadvantaged. That if you’re white you’re inherently privileged,” he adds.
By contrast, he says America has become a place “full of victims” where “faith, patriotism and hard work have disappeared”.
His campaign, he says will mean “a new movement to create a new American dream”.
When he launched it on Instagram, he said: “We’ve celebrated our ‘diversity’ so much that we forgot all the ways we’re really the same as Americans, bound by ideals that united a divided, headstrong group of people 250 years ago.
“I believe deep in my bones those ideals still exist. I’m running for president to revive them.”
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What is his story and what is his net worth?
Ramaswamy was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1985.
His parents are from Kerala, southern India. His father worked as an engineer and patent lawyer and his mother as a geriatric psychiatrist.
Although the family are Hindu, he attended Catholic school and credits his conservative Christian piano teacher there with informing many of his social views.
Having achieved top grades he studied biology at Harvard before attending Yale Law School.
While he was still studying he co-founded StudentBusinesses.com that connected entrepreneurs to professional resources on the internet.
After graduating in 2007 he co-founded a similar venture called Campus Venture Network to help university students start their own businesses.
Ramaswamy with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds in August
During the early years of career he worked in hedge funds, largely within biotech.
In 2014 he set up his own firm Roivant Sciences with the main aim of buying up drug patents that have been abandoned by the pharmaceutical industry.
A year later he pulled off one of the biggest IPOs (initial public offering) in the sector’s history when he listed shares of its subsidiary company Axovant, which had previously bought the patent to an Alzheimer’s drug from GlaxoSmithKline.
Despite having earned $315m (£248m) from the IPO – eventually the drug failed testing – an experience he has since said was “humiliating”.
He stepped down as chief executive of Roivant in 2021, remaining chairman until this year but still retaining a 7% share in the company.
Last year he co-founded a new investment firm, Strive Asset Management.
It has been popular with right-wing backers and prides itself on being opposed to environment, societal and corporate governance (ESG). The system, increasingly adopted by top firms, encourages them to make responsible investment decisions for good causes.
Now he claims to have widespread support from young voters and new donors. He says around 40% of his 700,000 financial backers have offered small contributions and are donating to a political candidate for the first time.
Forbes reported his net worth at $630m (£495m) and so far he has spent $15m (£11.8m) of it on his campaign.
How was his first debate?
James Matthews, Sky News’ US correspondent, gave his view after the businessman’s presidential debate debut…
If they didn’t know Vivek Ramaswamy before, they do now.
In the first Republican candidates’ debate, he brought a stage presence and ease of performance that carved himself a central role.
The business entrepreneur railed against the political establishment, Trump-style. He denigrated his debate rivals, Trump-style. And he took the headlines, Trump-style.
His was the punchy routine of the optimistic ‘let’s get rich’ guy landing amongst stage rivals furrowed over problems needing dealt with first.
He was the star-quality candidate the others had to shut down and that created a debate dynamic that, for Ramaswamy, delivered due prominence.
There will be time to work through his inexperience and politics behind the slogans.
What he got from a stage in Milwaukee was a recognition he didn’t have before – it can take a man a long way in American politics.
If it doesn’t take him as far as the front-runner, what then?
There was a lot of talk about the Republican debate being an audition to be Donald Trump’s running mate.
It’s a question for another day but, on debate day, he didn’t have a bigger mate on stage than Vivek Ramaswamy.
The families of some of the victims of the Uvalde school shooting have announced new legal action against three companies they say effectively helped to “train” the gunman to carry out the attack.
Legal action against Instagram parent company Meta Platforms, the maker of the video game series Call Of Duty and the company that made the gun used in the May 2022 shooting was announced on the two-year anniversary of the attack in Texas in the US.
Salvador Ramos, 18, killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on 24 May 2022.
The new legal cases accuse the companies of partnering to promote and create content designed to glorify combat, gun violence and killing.
Pic: Reuters
Josh Koskoff, a lawyer for the families, called the companies a “three-headed monster” that “knowingly exposed [the gunman] to the weapon, conditioned him to see it as a tool to solve his problems and trained him to use it”.
“There is a direct line between the conduct of these companies and the Uvalde shooting,” Mr Koskoff said.
According to the lawsuits, Ramos had played versions of Call Of Duty since he was 15, including one that allowed him to effectively practise with the version of the rifle he used at the school.
It claimed the company created a “hyperrealistic” game where “although the killing is virtual, the weapons are authentic – they are designed to perfectly imitate their real-life counterparts in look, feel, recoil and accuracy”.
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‘Failures’ in Uvalde school shooting
The legal action claims Instagram does little to enforce rules that ban marketing firearms and harmful content to children.
It also accuses gunmakers Daniel Defense of using the social media platform to help “extol the illegal, murderous use of its weapons”.
Some of the same families also filed a $500m (£392m) lawsuit against Texas state police officials and officers who responded to the shooting but waited more than an hour to confront Ramos inside the classroom as students and teachers lay dead, dying or wounded.
‘Baseless accusations’
Call Of Duty makers, Activision, called the shooting “horrendous and heartbreaking in every way”.
The company added its “deepest sympathies” for the “families and communities who remain impacted by this senseless act of violence”.
But it added: “Millions of people around the world enjoy video games without turning to horrific acts.”
Activision called the shooting ‘horrendous and heartbreaking in every way’. Pic: AP
The Entertainment Software Association – a video game industry trade group – also said it was “outraged by senseless acts of violence” but pushed back on blaming games for violence, arguing research has found no link.
“We discourage baseless accusations linking these tragedies to video gameplay, which detract from efforts to focus on the root issues in question and safeguard against future tragedies,” the group said.
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Survivors and community members at Uvalde town square on Friday morning. Pic: AP
Daniel Defense and Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
This is not the first legal action to be brought over the shooting.
In December 2022, a group of different plaintiffs filed a separate lawsuit against local and state police, the city, and other school and law enforcement, which seeks at least $27bn (£21bn) and class-action status for survivors.
At least two other lawsuits have also been filed against Daniel Defense.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
To mark the two-year anniversary of the shooting, community members in Uvalde planned a vigil for those killed.
In a letter, President Joe Biden said: “As we mark this solemn day, may we pray for those we lost, their loved ones, and all those who were wounded.”
A judge has rejected a request by Alec Baldwin to dismiss his criminal charge relating to the fatal shooting on the set of Rust.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer upheld an indictment charging Baldwin with one count of involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, in 2021.
The New Mexico judge rejected defence arguments that prosecutors flouted the rules of grand jury proceedings to divert attention away from exculpatory evidence and witnesses.
Halyna Hutchins. Pic: Shutterstock
Prosecutors denied the accusations and said Baldwin made “shameless” attempts to escape culpability, highlighting contradictions in his statements to law enforcement, to workplace safety regulators, and in a television interview.
Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to the charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison.
His lawyers said after Friday’s judgement: “We look forward to our day in court.”
The 66-year-old’s trial has been scheduled to start in July.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
During a rehearsal on the set of the Western film, Baldwin pointed a gun at Hutchins when the revolver went off, killing her and injuring director Joel Souza.
The actor has maintained that he pulled back the gun’s hammer but not the trigger.
US
Morgan Spurlock: Super Size Me documentary maker, who ate only McDonald’s for a month, dies aged 53
Documentary maker Morgan Spurlock, who famously ate only at McDonald’s for a month in Super Size Me, has died.
Spurlock died from complications of cancer at the age of 53 in New York, his family confirmed in a statement.
Craig Spurlock, the filmmaker’s brother, said: “Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas, and generosity.
“The world has lost a true creative genius and a special man. I am so proud to have worked together with him.”
Morgan Spurlock. Pic: Pia Torelli/Sipa/Shutterstock
Born on 7 November 1970, Spurlock started off his career as a playwright before creating I Bet You Will – an internet series where members of the public would take part in stunts for cash.
The 2002 webcasts, which saw some dared to eat a full jar of mayonnaise for $235 or take a shot of cod liver oil, were eventually bought by MTV.
Spurlock rose to fame with his 2004 documentary Super Size Me, where he exclusively ate at McDonald’s for 30 days to investigate the rise of obesity in the US.
He ate an average of 5,000 calories a day, always took a “super-size” meal if offered and exercised less to match the average American’s physical activity at the time.
By the end of his experiment, he claimed he put on 25lbs (11.3kg) and started suffering from depression and liver dysfunction.
Spurlock’s documentary grossed $22million in the global box office and was nominated for an Oscar.
It also prompted McDonald’s to stop offering its “super-size” option in 2004.
However the film’s findings were called into question as Spurlock refused to share his meal logs. He also later admitted to alcohol abuse in 2017, which other documentary makers said explained his liver issues and poor mental health.
In 2019, Spurlock released his second expose against the fast-food industry with Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!
The documentary sees him open his own restaurant and “become part of the problem” while tackling claims of healthy meals at big chain restaurants.
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