Vivek Ramaswamy posts ad during GOP debate telling viewers to tune out

WASHINGTON — Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy will run an ad during Wednesday’s CNN debate between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley urging Iowa viewers to tune out.

Ramaswamy, who didn’t qualify for the debate, alleges in the ad that the media is trying to rig the Iowa caucus “in favor of the corporate candidates who they can control.”

"Don't fall for their trick," Ramaswamy tells voters in the ad expected to air in every market in Iowa.

Playing to far-right conspiracies and talking points, he says, "They don't want you to hear from me about the truth of what really happened on January 6, the truth about the COVID origin, the Hunter Biden laptop story, and everything else they have lied to you about."

“So you could fix that,” Ramaswamy added. “Take your remote and turn this s--- off.”

More: 'I am the outsider': Who is 2024 Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy?

To qualify for the Iowa debate, candidates must receive at least 10% support in three separate national polls of Republican primary voters or in Iowa polls of Republican caucus goers that meet CNN’s standards.

Ramaswamy wrote on X, formerly Twitter, last week that the debate will be the most “boring in modern history” and that he will hold a competing live-audience show Wednesday night in Iowa with right-wing podcaster Tim Pool.

The businessman has lagged in national and state polls for the Republican nomination, trailing former President Donald Trump, Haley and DeSantis in fourth place.

Related: Nikki Haley is framing motherhood as an advantage, not a drawback. How it's making her rise in the polls.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Vivek Ramaswamy ad urges viewers to tune out DeSantis-Haley debate