Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for Republican nominee for US president in 2024, inspired accusations of taking the rightwing talking point about “draining the swamp” too literally when his microphone appeared to broadcast himself urinating during an X Space conversation with Elon Musk, Alex Jones, Andrew Tate, Matt Gaetz and others.
On the same day that Musk welcomed Jones – the notorious conspiracy theorist – back to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that banned Jones in 2018 for abusive behavior, Musk invited him to speak with a constellation of far-right media figures and politicians.
The conversation reportedly had more than 100,000 listeners at the time in question, and 2.3 million tuned in at some point.
Ramaswamy was in the midst of describing how he is “super pro-human – and I mean all humans. Uh, you know, humans in America” – when the sound of trickling water spurred another participant to cut him off.
“Vivek, Vivek, that’s your phone, Vivek,” the participant said. “I’m not able to mute you.”
“Sorry about that,” Ramaswamy said.
After a pause, Musk said, “Well, I hope you feel better now.”
“I feel great, thank you,” Ramaswamy said, laughing.
Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy takes a piss with his mic on during an 𝕏 Space with 100K+ listeners
Elon Musk: “I hope you feel better”
Vivek: “I feel great, thank you” pic.twitter.com/3ljslTqnpX
— Holden Culotta (@Holden_Culotta) December 10, 2023
Users gently mocked Ramaswamy in the comments. “Vivek is literally draining the swamp,” one wrote.
Ramaswamy, a contender for the Republican presidential nomination, was condemned for conspiracy-tinged remarks about the events of 9/11 and the January 6 attack on the Capitol in a profile published by the Atlantic.
Tate, a social media personality with dual US and British citizenship who has attracted a following by expressing extreme misogynistic views, was charged in June with human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. Tate remains under judicial control in Romania while he awaits trial and has denied the allegations.
Jones was ordered last year to pay nearly $1.5bn in damages to relatives of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting over his false claims that the attack was an elaborate ruse perpetrated by “crisis actors” to force gun control reform in the US.
“I think it’s great,” said Gaetz of Jones’s return to X, which Musk bought last year. “He is someone who provoked a lot of criticial thinking from policymakers and broad audiences.”
Ramaswamy is among several 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls who substantially trail Donald Trump in the polls. The former president has cemented himself as the Republican frontrunner despite facing 91 pending criminal charges accusing him of subversion of the 2020 election, retention of government secrets after he left office and hush money payments to a pornographic actor.