During the second GOP debate, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and former Vice President Mike Pence criticized biotech entrepreneur and GOP contender Vivek Ramaswamy for his links to Chinese businesses.
Scott launched an unexpected attack on Ramaswamy, recalling the latter’s comment that his GOP rivals were “bought and paid for,” The Hill reported.
“And I thought about that for a little while, and said, you know, I can't imagine how you could say that knowing that you were just in business with the Chinese Communist Party, and the same people that funded Hunter Biden millions of dollars was a partner of yours as well,” said Scott.
Ramaswamy dismissed these remarks as “nonsense.”
Scott’s comments refer to the formation of biopharmaceutical company Sinovant Sciences, a partnership between Ramaswamy’s Roivant Sciences and a state-owned Chinese investment firm, as reported by The Washington Post.
Ramaswamy retorted, arguing that Scott and others were “good people who are tainted by a broken system.”
Pence also criticized Ramaswamy’s past business activities in China, wryly noting that Ramaswamy had exited his Chinese business deal around the time he began voting in the presidential elections.
The intense exchange followed a surge in Ramaswamy’s poll numbers after a fiery performance in the first GOP debate in Milwaukee. Meanwhile, Pence and Scott’s polling figures remain in the single digits.
Image via Shutterstock
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