Republicans seek strength in the GOP debate after Donald Trump's indictments

Vivek Ramaswamy got off to a great start in this primary season's first Republican presidential debate, and then things slid rapidly downhill.

- Clarence Page

The 38-year-old entrepreneur and graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School is a new face in politics, national or otherwise, as his opening line suggested with an indirect reference to another once-rising new face from a campaign long ago.

"So, first, lemme just address a question that is on everybody's mind at home tonight," he said, cheerfully flashing a wall-to-wall smile that would prove to be as resilient as the national debt. "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?'" 

That brought some welcoming chuckles mixed with scattered groans from the crowd.

But things toughened up later in the debate after Ramaswamy called the climate change agenda a "hoax," chastised his fellow candidates for "memorized, preprepared slogans" and called himself "the only person on the stage who isn't bought and paid for." His fellow candidates loudly objected, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was ready with a zinger.

"I've had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT standing up here," Christie said to Fox News moderator Bret Baier. "And the last person in one of these debates, Bret, 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."