US: Vivek Ramaswamy proposes holding Republican debates on X to boost viewership

The Indian-American entrepreneur has even proposed journalist Tucker Carlson to moderate the GOP debates.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has questioned the current format of GOP debates and has proposed the Republican National Committee hold debates on social media platform X, New York Post reported. His remarks come after the audience declined across the previous three showdowns so far.

The Indian-American entrepreneur has even proposed journalist Tucker Carlson to moderate the GOP debates. "This January GOP debate should be held on X, not on cable TV, moderated by Tucker [Carlson], who might just ask questions that primary voters actually care about," Ramaswamy said in a statement to The Post on Friday.

"The RNC says they want to reach younger voters and new audiences? Well that's how you do it," the 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur added. The first Republican primary debate, hosted by Fox News Channel was held on August 23 in Milwaukee, and averaged 12.8 million viewers.

The second debate, held September 27 in Simi Valley, California and hosted by the Fox Business Network, got 9.5 million viewers, while the third debate, hosted by NBC News on November 8, in Miami, received an average of 7.51 million viewers. Earlier, during the third debate in Miami, Ramaswamy had again raised this issue and argued that Carlson, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk should moderate the debates to attract "ten times the viewership."

The Ramaswamy campaign has previously called on the Republican National Committee to alter its debate guidelines to feature a single moderator who "is able to enforce debate rules" and to raise the unique donor threshold from 70,000 to 1,00,000 to weed out lower-performing candidates. Ramaswamy has also gone head-to-head with RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, calling on her to resign following a series of poor Republican election performances.

Meanwhile, the fourth debate will be held in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on December 6. The event will be hosted and broadcast by NewsNation and will be moderated by former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, NewsNation's Elizabeth Vargas and The Washington Free Beacon's Eliana Johnson, New York Post reported. After Senator Tim Scott backed out; Ramaswamy, former Governor Chris Christie, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley could all qualify for the Alabama debate.

However, former President Donald Trump, who has missed all the debates so far is unlikely to attend this one too. Future debate dates and locations have yet to be announced, but Republicans are expected to hold at least one additional debate before the Iowa caucus on January 15 and New Hampshire primary on January 23, according to the New York Post. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)