WASHINGTON – Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel hit back at 2024 GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy for criticizing her over the party’s string of lackluster election results, saying the biotech entrepreneur is simply “looking for headlines.”
“Last I checked, I wasn’t running for president,” McDaniel said Sunday in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He’s at 4%, he’s looking for headlines.”
Ramaswamy took a shot at McDaniel and called on her to resign at the third Republican presidential debate Wednesday, blaming her for failing to bring more voters into the fold and calling the GOP a “party of losers.”
“Since Ronna McDaniel took over as chairwoman of the RNC in 2017, we have lost 2018, 2020, 2022 – no red wave … We got trounced last night in 2023. And I think that we have to have accountability in our party,” Ramaswamy said, noting the GOP’s latest losses in this year’s off-year elections.
Ramaswamy doubled down on his attacks later, posting on X, formerly Twitter, “Ronna should resign. This shouldn’t be controversial.”
McDaniel brushed off Ramaswamy’s remarks and said Republicans should instead focus on defeating President Joe Biden in the 2024 elections.
“We should be taking on Democrats, not each other,” McDaniel said, noting that the intraparty fighting has gone beyond the presidential race as well, referencing the ousting of former speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
“This circular firing squad, this attacking other Republicans like we saw with Kevin McCarthy, like we’ve been seeing over and over again, it is hurting us. And we have a map in 2024 where we can win the White House, take back the Senate and win the House,” she said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RNC chair McDaniel hits back at Vivek Ramaswamy for slamming GOP
