Entrepreneur and 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy claimed he was offered a second-place finish in the Conservative Political Action Conference's straw poll — but only if he paid up.
A senior campaign official for Ramaswamy told Politico the offer was upward of $100,000 and that the deal would include tickets and busing people to vote for the presidential hopeful in the straw poll. Ramaswamy talked about the offer made by CPAC during an interview on Fox Business Network's Varney & Co. Monday, saying it showed him "how corrupt this system is."
CPAC 2023: VIVEK RAMASWAMY COUNTERS MTG ON NATIONAL DIVORCE, SUGGESTS 'REVIVAL'
"Do you know what is funny about this? I attended CPAC before. I didn't know it works this way. A consultant calls my campaign shortly after we declared and said, 'We can get you up to No. 2 on there if you pay a few hundred thousand dollars.' I was shocked," Ramaswamy said. "There are a lot of people making money, not only off of me but off of every presidential campaign."
When asked if he paid to move up in the standings, he said he did not and that "that is fake. So why would I want to?"
A spokesperson for CPAC rejected the claims by Ramaswamy, telling the Washington Examiner that "Washington, D.C., is riddled with unscrupulous consultants who make false claims, including this one."
"CPAC attendance was so strong that we had to close ticket sales on Friday due to concerns over capacity. And anybody with a rudimentary understanding of...
stage at the Ninth Circuit, where pharmaceutical companies say a momentous new ruling "illustrates perfectly" the constitutional concerns of U. S. Supreme Court justices regarding FCA enforcement. ...