Former GOP hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy has gained some steam, back before he dropped out and sided with former President Donald Trump. Back in the heady early days of the runup to the GOP primary, Vivek was largely considered the winner of the first Republican debate, and the fact that most of the other hopefuls on stage directly attacked Ramaswamy as opposed to Florida governor Ron DeSantis was quite telling.

It had been assumed that if former President Donald Trump had any actual competition, it would come from the Florida governor. Many pundits had assumed the debate would be a knives-out attack on DeSantis. Instead, he faded into the background, avoiding any heavy blows from the likes of Chris Christie and Nikki Haley.

Ramaswamy, the Cincinnati-born entrepreneur, has run largely on the populist platform used by Donald Trump. He espouses America-first policies, more border security, cutting off funding for foreign wars, and a climate change stance that immediately has run afoul of the left.

On the debate stage, Ramaswamy called climate change a “hoax,” eliciting cheers from the crowd but derision from the other GOP challengers. The young upstart contender recently went on leftist MSNBC and was attacked by Andre Mitchell about his climate change stance.

Ramaswamy roundly shut Mitchell down. She said: “Let’s talk about the hurricane that is now approaching. You’ve called climate change and that agenda a hoax. You said more people are dying from bad climate change policies than there are of actual climate change. But according to a U.N. agency, extreme weather events compounded by climate change caused the death of 2 million people between 1970 and 2021.”

Ramaswamy was direct and indisputable in his rebuttal: “I can offer clear evidence that the number of climate disaster related deaths is down by 98% over the last century. The number of people who died of hurricanes, tornadoes, heatwaves and other weather-related events in 1920 — for every 100 that died then, two die today. And the reason why is more plentiful, abundant access to fossil fuels and technology powered by fossil fuels. I can also tell you today it is a hard fact. None of these things are disputed. Eight times as many people die of cold temperatures than die of warm ones. The right answer to all temperature related deaths is more plentiful abundant access to fossil fuels.”

Mitchell conveniently ignored the hard data showing more people die worldwide from cold than heat, but the climate alarmists often cherry-pick data and state anecdotal evidence as fact. Mitchell stated such evidence when referring to Hurricane Idalia and how many locals have said they have never seen anything like it in their lifetime. She said: “There’s a hard fact of the hurricane that is now approaching. The mayor through three generations — St. Petersburg resident — says he’s never seen anything like this, the ocean warming. But let me move on to some—,”

Ramaswamy, however, didn’t let her simply drop anecdotal evidence as fact and move on. He cut her off, and what happened next is sure to boost the young candidate even further. He said: “Andrea, may I respectfully offer a response to that? And I mean this with due respect. If someone on the other side or an uneducated person from Arkansas who didn’t go to college and offered one weather event as an end of one anecdote to help support a theory of global climate change, you’d laugh them off the stage as a rube for saying they don’t follow data. The same shoe has to fit the other foot. Follow the actual data.”

A stunned Mitchell attempted a volley before being reminded of what she said and shut down once again by Ramaswamy. Mitchell said: “I’m not talking about one person’s opinion. We talk to professors, academics, industry people…” before Vivek interrupted and effectively ended the debate, saying, “You literally just quoted one person’s opinion. With due respect, that’s exactly what you just quoted. And I think that that’s what’s driving this kind of false narrative as opposed to the facts that I’m citing.”

Watch them spar here:

Clueless MSNBC host sits in stunned silence as Vivek Ramaswamy exposes the climate change scam pic.twitter.com/YFaSMlVOkp

— Young Americans for Liberty (@YALiberty) August 30, 2023

When it comes to climate issues, Vivek Ramaswamy can expect to be pounded by the left. Green energy and cutting off our energy independence is key to the liberal agenda. Many on the left in Washington have vast sums of money invested in green technology and stand to lose millions if it fails.

Candidates like Ramaswamy and President Trump, who want to make America energy independent again and are willing to cite actual science, pose a grave threat to the leftist narrative of climate change. Hopefully, one or the other, or perhaps even a combined ticket of Trump and Ramaswamy, can take the White House in 2024 and begin to set America back on the right track.