Heading into the first presidential debate of this Republican primary season, hosted by Fox News and streaming exclusively on the right-wing YouTube competitor Rumble, Fox is continuing to provide a friendly platform for biotech investor and gadfly presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Fox practically created Ramaswamy’s political campaign by giving him frequent TV appearances and, as a result, the country is now being exposed to more of Ramaswamy’s conspiracy theories and extremist policy ideas as he has risen in prominence. At the same time, Ramaswamy has used his newfound celebrity to consistently defend and advocate for disgraced former President Donald Trump, who announced Sunday that he’ll be skipping the debates.

Fox News host Sean Hannity previously commended Ramaswamy on May 1 for “going into enemy territory” via his mainstream media appearances, citing an April 19 appearance on CNN as a prime example. Such forays have continued, with Ramaswamy announcing in another CNN interview last week that he would allow Russia to keep Ukrainian territory it has seized since invading the country, and he would personally visit Moscow in an attempt to forge an alliance. And in a new profile piece in The Atlantic, Ramaswamy appeared to spread a variety of conspiracy theories about both 9/11 and January 6, which he then continued in a CNN interview Monday night, all of which amounts to an alarming display of paranoia for someone who is supposedly aspiring to the Oval Office.

Other right-wing media personalities have praised Ramaswamy, with far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones calling him “Alex Jones 2.0.” Fox host Jesse Watters and Daily Wire host Michael Knowles have also endorsed Ramaswamy’s call to take the right to vote away from 18-to-24-year-olds, a proposal that would require repealing the 26th Amendment.

Indeed, the evidence now is that Ramaswamy is not even a threat to Trump — who continues to dominate in Republican primary polls, and who Ramaswamy does not really criticize — but instead to Trump’s closest (but still distant) serious rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The New York Times reported last week that a strategy memo by the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down recommended that DeSantis should “defend Trump” in the debate, and instead “take a sledgehammer” to Ramaswamy.

An analysis by Media Matters found that Ramaswamy has appeared on Fox News weekday programming at least 52 times since he declared his candidacy, which came on the February 21 edition of Fox’s since-canceled prime-time show Tucker Carlson Tonight. During his numerous Fox appearances over just the past week and a half, Ramaswamy has pushed a combination of conspiracy theories and continued adulation for Trump, along with promises to pardon not only the former president but some further number of January 6 defendants. The picture that emerges is not of a serious candidate running against Trump, but of yet another Trump ally making the case for his candidacy on Fox News.

• Ramaswamy claimed that U.S. support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion was “I believe … a repayment for a bribe made” to President Joe Biden, and called for it to be the subject of an impeachment inquiry. Ramaswamy also told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, “I'm the only candidate to actually pledge to pardon Trump for all of these political persecutions through prosecutions, even peaceful January 6 protesters on down.” [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 8/13/23]

• On Hannity, Ramaswamy called Trump “the single greatest president we’ve had in my lifetime,” and then assured viewers, “I stand for the America First movement.” Ramaswamy also tried to explain why he hadn’t voted for Trump (or anyone else) in 2016: “I was skeptical. I was a jaded person in my 20s and like so many people in their 20s, Sean, I get it.” (To be exact, Ramaswamy may have been jaded in his 20s, but he was 31 years old on Election Day 2016.) [Fox News, Hannity, 8/16/23]

• On Your World, Ramaswamy also defended Trump from the numerous criminal indictments against him, warning that “when the people behave like sheep, that breeds a government of wolves.” In Ramaswamy's telling, people are behaving like “sheep” if they believe “there must be something wrong if the government has charged 91 counts” against Trump. He further added: “When you have a series of novel legal theories that are used to indict a prior U.S. president and a sitting candidate in the middle of an election, I just don't think that's good for the country.” (It is unclear what legally constitutes a “sitting candidate.”) [Fox News, Your World, 8/15/23]

• When Fox anchor John Roberts asked Ramaswamy about the pro-DeSantis strategy memo, Ramaswamy said DeSantis had no message: “When you have professional politicians, they use attacks on other candidates as a substitute for a message of their own.” He added: “I think we have a choice between super PAC puppets who are being propped up with prepped lines and millions of dollars to go along with it, versus, in my case, I’m an outsider. I think of myself as a patriot who speaks the truth.” [Fox News, America Reports, 8/17/23]

• On The Ingraham Angle, Ramaswamy reiterated that he would pardon Trump “on day one.” Ramaswamy also alleged, “And I do think we have an establishment that spans both political parties that is fundamentally hostile to one man, who happens to be one of my opponents in this primary.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/18/23]