The decline of Vivek Ramaswamy

The entrepreneur has struggled to find a lane to run in

Vivek Ramaswamy, the pharmaceuticals entrepreneur running for the Republican Party (at least for now) nomination for president, announced in a long post on Twitter/X this morning that he will not attend the next primary debate hosted by CNN on January 10th, to be held at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. He claimed the network had engaged in “shenanigans” throughout the campaign and that the debate would be “fake.”

The real reason for Ramaswamy’s boycott may be less a profound disagreement with the network’s coverage of him (Ramaswamy previously appeared on an exclusive town hall with CNN), and more damage control. This afternoon (after the candidate’s Twitter rant) CNN announced that Ramaswamy had failed to reach its pre-determined criteria for appearance at the debate:

Candidates must receive at least 10% in three separate national and/or Iowa polls of Republican caucusgoers or primary voters that meet CNN’s standards for reporting, according to the network. One of the three poll…