Presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy “pumped” for Wednesday night’s debate

MIAMI – Republican candidate and presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy was one of the five GOP hopefuls who made public appearances Tuesday night.

First, he stopped at Cuba Ocho in Little Havana for a rally for his supporters.

“You deserve a leader of this country who puts the interests of our own citizens first,” said Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy telling CBS News Miami he’s “pumped” for Wednesday night’s debate, where he’ll face off against four of his competitors.

“Down to five people, I think it’s going to be a little bit more useful than seven children speaking, you know, over me on stage over the last first debate — certainly had a lot of it — the second one did too — I thought the second one was totally useless,” said Ramaswamy.

What does he think about former President Donald Trump skipping the third debate?

“I expect that later down in the process we’re going to have open debate — including him — but let’s see the debate stage thin down even more,” said Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy, also weighing in on whether Trump should step aside if convicted of any crimes before election day.

“I think these political prosecutions of Donald Trump are unjust, and frankly I think they should have nothing to do with the electoral process — that’s where I’m at,”

And what about Governor Ron DeSantis?

“He was a good governor among many in his first term and I respect him for that. But I think as a presidential candidate it’s going to take somebody that has a vision for this country about where we’re actually going — articulate an independent vision. That’s what I think the country needs in the presidency — that’s a little bit different than just being a governor,”

Meanwhile, a group of protestors gathered outside of the Adrienne Arsht Center, addressing what they say is the current ethnic cleansing and genocide in Armenia.

“After observing what happened to the indigenous people of Artsakh, 120,000 of them — they were attacked, they were blockaded for months for nine months — they had to leave the indigenous land — they had been there for a millennia,” said Raffy, a supporter of Armenia.

Ramaswamy, joining the protesters in downtown Miami.

“This is probably the most underappreciated atrocity in the world as we know it today that’s underappreciated by other Western American elites,” said Ramaswamy.

The Republican debate kicks off Wednesday night at 8 p.m.

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