Things were not so friendly on “Fox and Friends” after co-host Brian Kilmeade entered into a vicious exchange with Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on live television.
Ramaswamy was with Fox News reporter Lawrence Jones in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Thursday, where Ramaswamy had debated in the fourth GOP primary debate the night before.
Jones questioned and criticized Ramaswamy’s attacks on Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, which Ramaswamy calmly answered.
But when it was Kilmeade’s turn to ask questions, the interview heated up for nearly five minutes.
Kilmeade mainly criticized Ramaswamy’s proposed policies on the Russia-Ukraine war.
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“His policy — it’s just ridiculous on Russia and Ukraine,” Kilmeade said.
After confirming Ramaswamy could hear him, Kilmeade addressed him again directly.
“Hey, Vivek, are you comfortable with Russia taking as much of Ukraine as they want? Are you comfortable pulling all our aid out? And do you really believe that Vladimir Putin will agree not to have an alliance with China?” Kilmeade said.
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Ramaswamy stressed the importance of playing “hardball” with Russia, that we would need to go beyond sanctions, and make use of a “maximum pressure campaign.”
“What I’m saying, Brian, is the clear principles are: This war doesn’t advance U.S. interest. The Russia-China alliance is the top threat that we face,” Ramaswamy said.
Kilmeade insisted the war does serve U.S. interests.
“Vivek, are you comfortable giving up Eastern Europe? Because, you know, they’re already taking Moldova, already making moves on the Baltic, they’re taking more and more pieces of Georgia, and all we’ve done is sit there and send blankets and MREs and we got an invasion,” Kilmeade said.
Ramaswamy’s response received applause from the audience behind him.
“Because we have no idea how Ukraine has spent $200 billion of our money. We’re forking over more taxpayer money so some Ukrainian kleptocrat can buy a bigger house. That’s corrupt and I’m not going to stand for that,” Ramaswamy said.
Fox co-host Ainsley Earhardt attempted to interrupt the exchange, but stopped herself short.
Kilmeade and Ramaswamy continued to debate the apparent parallels of the situation in Ukraine to World War II, as well as the crisis at the southern border.
“I think it is offensive that people would sooner spend $200 billion of our resources to protect some other nation’s foreign border — that’s not a democracy — when in fact, we’re not even doing that effectively here on our border,” Ramaswamy said.
The audience applauded once again. But Kilmeade insisted we could fund both borders, which Ramaswamy called “neo-con wisdom.”
Jones eventually stopped the argument and thanked Ramaswamy for joining the program.
Kilmeade clearly had an issue with Ramaswamy even before the interview began.
Five minutes before Kilmeade had even begun speaking with Ramaswamy, he criticized Ramaswamy’s attacks on Haley during the debate the night before.
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“He had the most speaking time at that debate stage — Vivek Ramaswamy spent much of it in those scathing attacks against Nikki Haley,” Kilmeade said.
The two sparred over their views on Ukraine in August, as well.
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That match went nearly as long and hit on similar talking points.
That time, Earhart also chimed in to criticize Ramaswamy on his views about China.
