CNN Panelists Groan at Republican Strategist’s Joke Mocking Vivek Ramaswamy’s Iowa Showing: ‘Ugh’

While waiting for former President Donald Trump to speak after his projected victory at the Iowa caucus, CNN’s stable of panelists talked about the race for second place. And one panelist had a joke about Vivek Ramaswamy that he was just itching to try out.

After some analysis with commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin, who predicted that Trump would declare himself the winner of the GOP primary and ask the other candidates to rally behind him, the conversation turned to the other runners-up: former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

But not much was said about Ramaswamy, who has seen his polling numbers fall as he became more confrontational during the GOP debates and conspiracy-curious. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper even pointed out that he’d done “all those push-ups” during his campaign, all for nothing. But commentator Scott Jennings, a former advisor to former President George W. Bush as well as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), had a Ramaswamy joke he was really eager to try out in front of people, much to their chagrin:

Jennings: If you look at some of this entrance polling that is flying around out there, I mean, Trump didn’t really struggle with much of anybody. I mean, college, non-college, he did well, independents, you know… I mean, that was thought to be sort of Haley coming in…

Cooper: Vivek Ramaswamy is doing all those push-ups with college students. Didn’t do anything.

Jennings: Voters put the break on Vivek tonight.

That terrible dad joke earned Jennings a groan from the rest of the panel, and the commentator admitted, “That one’s been in the quiver.”

Watch the video above via CNN.