Vivek Ramaswamy clashes with Fox News host over ‘naive’ Ukraine stance

Fresh off a spiky performance at Wednesday night’s fourth Republican debate, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy got an early morning grilling Thursday from “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade about his policy toward Ukraine.

Kilmeade cut right to the chase and asked the White House contender if he was comfortable giving “Russia as much of Ukraine as they want” as well as whether Ramaswamy was confident he could keep Russia and China apart in exchange.

“I think we have to play hardball there and make a hard deal that requires any reneging on that deal to have major consequences,” Ramaswamy replied.

Ramaswamy has long premised his approach to the Ukraine war on the goal of rupturing Sino-Russia relations — which he views as the top threat to national security.

When pressed about what other penalties the US could impose given the sanctions on Russia already in place, Ramaswamy explained that he’d back a “maximum pressure campaign.”

“It’s going to be done anyway. You cannot keep Russia from China,” Kilmeade rebutted.

Ramaswamy protested that there are “kinks in that relationship.”

Kilmeade then asked if he was comfortable with Russia taking more of Eastern Europe.

“We have no idea how Ukraine has spent $200 billion of our money. We’re forking over more taxpayer money,” Ramaswamy responded. “That’s corrupt.”

Since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Congress has authorized some $113 billion in aid, but not all of that has been delivered. President Biden is seeking more money for the war-torn nation as the war nears the end of its second year.

Ramaswamy also disputed the characterization of Ukraine as a democracy.

“You sound so naive!” Kilmeade shot back. “You just give up Ukraine and then in a few years, you’ll be criticizing Joe Biden for giving up Ukraine.”

“Brian, I think that if I called Nikki Haley naive, you guys would be having a conniption, let’s be honest about that,” Ramaswamy answered. “I actually understand what the heck I’m talking about here.”

Echoing his criticsm of support for Ukraine on the debate stage, Ramaswamy called for “this neocon wisdom to be relegated to the dustbin of history where it belongs.”

“Well forget ‘neocon wisdom’. Nobody buys into that,” Kilmeade chided before adding sarcastically “Just give up Eastern Europe.”

“I think it’s a boneheaded foreign policy and I think the right answer is that we need to protect Americans,” Ramaswamy concluded.

Just prior to the interview with Ramaswamy, co-host Steve Doocy described the 38-year-old’s debate performance as “embarrassing.”

“He just came in too hot once again. He got booed a number of times,” said Doocy, who awarded Ramaswamy a fourth-place finish in his personal debate rankings “just because he was there.”