‘Comedian in cargo pants’: Vivek Ramaswamy calls Volodymyr Zelenskyy a ‘Nazi’

GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy asked Americans to not buy into the narrative that the Russia-Ukraine war is a battle between good and evil. He said that no one should believe that Ukraine is a “paragon of democracy” and called President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “comedian in cargo pants”. 

"Ukraine is not a paragon of democracy. This is a country that has banned 11 opposition parties. It has consolidated all media into one state TV media arm — that’s not democratic. It has threatened not to hold elections this year unless the US forks over more money — that is not democratic. It has celebrated a Nazi in its ranks, the comedian in cargo pants, a man called Zelenskyy. That is not democratic," Ramaswamy said in a face-off between five Republican presidential hopefuls in a debate hosted by NBC News. 

He said that there are more facts that the mainstream media will not reveal, such as the regions of Ukraine occupied by Russia right now including Donbas, Donetsk and Luhansk are Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine that have not been part of the country since 2014.

“To frame this as some battle between good versus evil – don’t buy it,” said Ramaswamy, further asking fellow Republican, Nikki Haley, if she wants to use American taxpayers’ money to fund the banning of Christians. “This is actually happening,” said Ramaswamy about the Ukrainian parliament banning the Orthodox Church over its alleged links with Russia.  

Ramaswamy and Haley, in the debate, made no secret about their dislike for each other. Further speaking about the Israel-Palestine conflict, Ramaswamy said that the leading candidates – Haley and Ron DeSantis – could drag America into a bloody war in Europe. 

"Do you want Dick Cheney in three-inch heels? Because you've got two of them on stage tonight," he said in reference to Haley and DeSantis. "They're five-inch heels, and I don't wear them unless I can run in them. They are not a fashion statement, they are ammunition,” Haley shot back. 

It was but far from over after Ramaswamy mentioned Nikki Haley’s daughter using the banned Chinese short video app TikTok. “Leave my daughter out of your voice,” Haley countered, adding under her breath, “You’re just scum.”

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