Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany praised Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy as "authentic" and an "outsider" ahead of the first Republican presidential debate.
McEnany compared Ramaswamy's characteristics as a candidate to former President Donald Trump in the 2016 GOP primary. Her comments came while speaking on Fox News's Fox and Friends on Wednesday.
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“He’s smart, he’s authentic, and he is the o-word: an outsider. Remember Donald Trump, 2016, he was an outsider, he was authentic, he was real,” McEnany said.
“But we have seen hit piece after hit piece over the last several days — that’s not by accident. That’s likely his rival planting these stories," she continued.
McEnany said that most of the attacks against Ramaswamy have come on foreign policy and noted that he should change his tone on some of his controversial stances. In recent weeks, Ramaswamy has entertained the idea of cutting off funding to Israel and potentially allowing China to invade Taiwan after the U.S. builds up its "semiconductor independence."
Ramaswamy has come under fire for recent comments on the 9/11 terrorist attacks after he questioned whether federal agents were on the planes that hit the twin towers. In an interview with the Atlantic, Ramaswamy brought up the idea, saying he did not believe it but that it should have been questioned whether federal agents were involved in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. He claimed to CNN's Kaitlan Collins that he was misquoted, but audio released by the Atlantic proved he was not.
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Polls have Ramaswamy as high as third place, behind Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), with the RealClearPolitics polling average showing him with 7.2% of the GOP primary vote.
Ramaswamy and several other top GOP contenders will be at the debate in Milwaukee, but Trump will not be attending. The debate is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. EDT and will be televised on Fox News.