Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told FOX Business host Stuart Varney on Monday that a (GOP) consultant offered to boost his finish in the CPAC straw poll last weekend for a few hundred-thousand dollars.

That did not sit well with Vivek.

Vivek Ramaswamy: I’m new to this as an outsider. One of the things you see as an outsider is how corrupt this system is. You know something funny about this? I’ve attended CPAC before. I didn’t know it works this way. A consultant calls my campaign shortly after I declare and says hey we can get you up to number two on there if you pay a few hundred thousand dollars.

Stuart Varney: Really?

Vivek Ramaswamy: I was shocked. You know what, there’s a lot of people who are making money not only off of me, but off of every presidential campaign. This will probably be not only the most expensive presidential campaign, the one that people in the industry, politics is an industry. People make so much money off of this that one of the things I’m going to be doing throughout this campaign is exposing it. I didn’t get to where I am by actually just getting exploited and I think the American people actually deserve to see the sausage getting made.

Stuart Varney: Did you pay?

Vivek Ramaswamy: Absolutely not. I mean that is fake. So why would I want to get bumped up too? I said I would take my speaking slot instead. And actually people can see that speech on my website, Vivek2024.

Via Varney and Co.

Vivek should name the consultant!

Vivek says the CPAC presidential poll is paid for* by participants and that he was offered to pay to rank as high as number two on the poll. pic.twitter.com/AlT0IsWix1

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) March 6, 2023