Republican Vivek Ramaswamy swiped at former President on Thursday for failing to repeal and replace the health care overhaul championed by his predecessor, former President .
鈥淚 am never somebody who will make a false promise,鈥� Ramaswamy said at an event in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. 鈥淢y friend Donald Trump promised us: repeal and replace Obamacare. Eight years later, did it happen? No, it did not. It is a false promise if it is contingent on Congress.鈥�
It was a rare dig at Trump by Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old businessman who is a even while running against him for the 2024 Republican nomination. Ramaswamy has referred to Trump as the best president of the 21st century and at times for his praise of Trump.
Ramaswamy is among a pack of candidates trailing Trump and generally falling behind Florida Gov. in national polls.
Some polls suggest that he is performing slightly better than the rest of the pack in third place. A even suggested that Ramaswamy could be approaching DeSantis鈥� second-place position, though some other polls suggest he remains close to others behind both Trump and DeSantis.
He gave a speech on his proposals for the U.S. to end its dependence on China by reducing the supply of pharmaceuticals and industrial-base materials from the country and instead expanding trade with trusted allies.
Despite rising tensions between Washington and Beijing, the world's two largest economies are and any so-called 鈥渄ecoupling鈥� would require a major restructuring of many U.S. industries.
Ramaswamy hit Trump on Obamacare when asked about tax policy. He said many presidents make mistakes by focusing on legislative matters first.
At the first GOP debate, which Trump skipped, Ramaswamy vowed to pardon the former president if given the chance and called him 鈥渢he best president of the 21st century.鈥� In an interview with ABC 鈥淭his Week" earlier this month, Ramaswamy said he didn't believe Trump had done anything illegal in response to questions about the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and the classified documents found at his Florida home.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Gomez Licon reported from Miami. Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
Adriana Gomez Licon, The Associated Press
