GOP primary candidates take the stage

Vivek Ramaswamy, 38, is an entrepreneur and biotech founder with no prior military or political experience. He studied biology at Harvard University before attending Yale Law School. In 2014, he founded Roivant Science and resigned as CEO in 2021.

Ramaswamy recently suggested “the truth” about the September 11 attacks is still unknown. He initially claimed that he had been misquoted in an article by The Atlantic, however, the publication later released an audio clip of his interview showing that he was quoted accurately.

He has previously said that he opposes U.S. aid to Ukraine by arguing that the conflict on the European continent does not affect American interests. He says the Russia-China axis is by far the top threat to U.S. national security and should therefore pull more focus.

Ramaswamy has also detailed a peace settlement between Kyiv and Moscow that would include Ukraine conceding nearly all of its Donbas region to Russia in exchange for guarantees that Ukraine will not join the NATO alliance.

He recently pitched closing all American military installations located in Eastern Europe in order to appease the Kremlin. Ramaswamy says the U.S. in return should ask Russia to lessen its relationship with China.

— Amanda Macias

Around noon ET on Wednesday, hours before the first Republican debate was set to begin, the Trump campaign declared victory in the spar he isn’t participating in.

“President Trump has already won this evening’s debate because everything is going to be about him,” Trump campaign senior advisor Chris LaCivita said in a statement. “Only President Trump has the policy ideas, the fortitude, and the polling to go head-to-head with Crooked Joe Biden in the general election.”

LaCivita said the number of times Trump’s name was mentioned during the debate would be counted as his speaking time.

“When the other candidates do get a chance to speak, they will be a faint echo, or maybe even a copycat, of President Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda.”

LaCivita closed by saying the event “really shouldn’t even be called a debate” but was more of an audition to be part of Trump’s team.

— Emma Kinery

Candidates needed to meet the threshold set by the Republican National Committee in order to qualify for the debate.

Those benchmarks include at least 40,000 individual campaign donations and meeting the polling qualifications, either 1% in three different national polls, or 1% in two national polls and 1% in another poll from an early state like Iowa.

In order to participate candidates also needed to sign a pledge of support to whomever gets the party’s nomination. Donald Trump, who is the frontrunner in the race, has refused to sign the pledge.

In an interview with Newsmax, Trump was adamant he would not sign the pledge, saying “Why would I sign it? I can name three or four people that I wouldn’t support for president. So right there, there’s a problem.”

— Emma Kinery

The debate will start at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday in Wisconsin, a battleground state, at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum.

Fox News is hosting the first GOP presidential debate in the leadup to the primaries, with network hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum at the moderating table. The debate will be available across all platforms operated by the Fox News network, including Fox Business Network, Fox News Digital, Fox’s website, the Fox Nation streaming service as well as Fox News Audio.

— Amanda Macias