Following some negative statements made by Vivek Ramaswamy about Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel at the forum, Ramaswamy’s campaign claimed that McDaniel tried to limit his campaign’s exposure in the post-debate spin room.
Senior advisor Tricia McLaughlin said that when the Ramaswamy team entered the spin room in Miami on Wednesday night, the candidate was immediately swarmed by reporters. There was a hunt for his “spinning stick,” a sign held aloft by a young RNC employee so that it is visible to journalists, but none could be located.
They eventually found what looked to be a forgotten Ramaswamy sign in a corner of the room, with no RNC worker in sight. Ramaswamy’s bodyguard, Patrick McFeeley, picked up the placard independently.
The campaign saw the incident as payback for the candidate’s harsh treatment of McDaniel at the start of the debate. The businesswoman in the biotech industry demanded the resignation of the RNC chairperson after the party suffered a series of electoral defeats.
“We’ve become a party of losers,” Ramaswamy stated.
McLaughlin noted how coincidental it was that the candidate who had demanded the RNC chair’s resignation also found his sign abandoned in the corner.
Immediately following a debate, reporters rush into the “spin room” to interview campaign staffers and candidates. The signage lets the reporters know precisely where to go and who to speak with.
An RNC spokeswoman said the organization “provides spin room signs for all candidates,” including Vivek. We were never approached to assist in holding his sign by his campaign. Thanks to the spin room, someone was holding his campaign sign, and he had seven credentials to use whatever he saw fit.
A source close to the debate’s organization said that printing the signs and having personnel hold them was the RNC’s obligation, not NBC’s or the arena’s. The Ramaswamy campaign contacted NBC for clarification, but the network pointed them toward the RNC.
After the argument was ended, Ramaswamy and McDaniel had a heated exchange on X, where he responded to her assertions that he voted for Barack Obama.
