Looks Like the GOP’s Youngest Presidential Candidate May Also Be Its Worst Mansplainer

Hot off of pushing conspiracy theories that 9/11 and the Jan. 6 insurrection were inside jobs by government agents, Vivek Ramaswamy—the 38-year-old rising star polling at third in the Republican presidential primary—swung by Kaitlan Collins’ show on Monday to do exactly what you’d expect a former libertarian rapper would: condescendingly laugh in Collins’ face, say her name a bunch of times and mansplain to hell.

Collins played a clip Monday night that Ramaswamy himself had shared on social media, showing him give a speech in which he pledges to arm Taiwanese households with guns to fight back against the Chinese government. “Do you really think that would be a sufficient plan to deter a Chinese invasion if it includes long-range missiles, ground troops, an aerial blockade, a naval blockade?” she asked him.

“Kaitlan, Kaitlan, Kaitlan, Kaitlan, Kaitlan,” Ramaswamy replied, smiling and laughing like a men’s rights Redditor doing their best impression of the Joker. “Of course it’s not sufficient,” he continued, “You take that tiny little clip when I articulated at the Nixon Library last week, a one-hour speech with a whole range of deterrents.” Mind you—as Collins points out—she played this clip of his hour-long speech specifically because Ramaswamy posted it himself.

Ramaswamy then went on an unhinged little tangent, explaining his plan to “[turn] Taiwan into a porcupine” and “[export] our Second Amendment,” before turning it back on Collins and how incompetent he finds her to be: “I find it laughable that you will take that clip and then put words into my mouth as though that was a sufficient deterrent. Kaitlan, with due respect, that’s a joke, especially when I’ve offered as expansive of a deterrent strategy as I have.”

On Tuesday, Ramaswamy doubled down on his attacks on Collins, referring to her as “a petulant teen” and calling their conversation “hilarious” via Twitter. In another tweet—currently the pinned tweet on his profile, as of Tuesday afternoon—he aggressively denied the mansplaining accusations: “Speaking the hard TRUTH to a female anchor isn’t ‘mansplaining,’” he wrote, adding, “I believe in equal opportunity for all media dishonesty.”

Look, the man is clearly a dick, so it’s not especially surprising that he’d talk to or treat someone this way. But of course, it’s hard to picture him talking to a male anchor with such nasty and sexist condescension—probably because he wouldn’t!

This, of course, is just who Ramaswamy is—an Elon Musk-ian edgelord who spent his collegiate years cosplaying as libertarian rapper “Da Vek.” And being a twerpy mansplainer is part and parcel, really, with being a libertarian—just like knowing far too much about state age of consent laws.

Ramaswamy, who’s currently running on a platform of “10 commandments” (which include “God is real,” “There are two genders,” “Human flourishing requires fossil fuels,” and “The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind”) is presently polling in a decisive third place behind Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis for the Republican nomination. A Fox News poll from last week showed the biotech entrepreneur and maybe-billionaire at 11%—behind Florida Gov. DeSantis’ 16% and Trump’s 53%. Ramaswamy’s 11% share is more than double the fourth place candidate, Mike Pence, who’s polling at 5%. Wednesday night’s primary debate should be fun!