Businessman and 2024 GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told Newsmax Friday that while he likes South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott's optimism, the 2024 GOP nominee has to have "a spine of steel" and should not be a career politician.
"I actually love Tim Scott's optimism. I think he has a future in the Republican Party and the conservative movement. But I think if you want to move the needle, I don't think it's going to happen with a professional politician or a career politician," Ramaswamy said during "Eric Bolling The Balance." "[It is] going to take somebody with a spine of steel who is going to dismantle that governmental bureaucracy, shut down the unconstitutional administrative state. That's what I'm going to do."
Scott filed paperwork Friday with the Federal Election Commission declaring his intention to run for the Republican nomination in the 2024 race.
Reportedly, the Senate's only Black Republican likely will announce his candidacy during an event Monday at Charleston Southern University, a private Baptist college and Scott's alma mater.
Ramaswamy said that Scott and others who have served in the legislature or Senate or who have the backing of the "donor class" will be unable to do what has to be done once in office.
"I don't think somebody who has been in the process of compromising in the legislature or in the Senate, or even somebody who comes from the professional political apparatus and is dependent on the donor class [will be able to dismantle the bureaucracy], and that's not specific to Scott or [Florida Republican Gov.] Ron DeSantis," he said
DeSantis also is expected to announce his bid for the White House next week after months of speculation about his entering the race against former President Donald Trump, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and Ramaswamy, The New York Times reported Thursday.
According to the report, DeSantis told donors that there were just three "credible" candidates in the race: Democratic President Joe Biden, Trump, and himself.
"You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing," the Times reported DeSantis saying to donors on a call organized by the super PAC supporting him, Never Back Down. "Biden, Trump, and me. And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president: Biden and me, based on all the data in the swing states, which is not great for the former president and probably insurmountable because people aren't going to change their view of him."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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