Ramaswamy Learns the Hard Way About the 'Mute' Button

Presidential candidate is heard urinating during convo on X with Elon Musk, Alex Jones, others
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 11, 2023 9:30 AM CST
Ramaswamy Learns the Hard Way About the 'Mute' Button
Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during an event with US Rep. Randy Feenstra on Saturday in Sioux Center, Iowa.   (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

The last thing you want to do while taking part in a live online chat is forget to press "mute" while heeding nature's call. Vivek Ramaswamy found that out the hard way over the weekend, when his bathroom break was heard 'round the internet after getting picked up on the GOP presidential candidate's hot mic, reports NDTV. The Sunday conversation on X Spaces, hosted by entrepreneur Mario Nawfal, included not only Ramaswamy, but also X owner Elon Musk, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones (who was reinstated to X over the weekend by Musk), and a group of other right-wing personalities.

The participants were discussing, among other things, Jones' reinstatement. At one point during the convo, however, Ramaswamy announced, "[Gentlemen], I have to go," and he apparently meant in the lavatory sense, as the next sounds that could be heard over the livestream were the sounds of his urination, with about 100,000 people listening in. "Somebody's got their phone open in the bathroom," Jones helpfully interjected, at which point Nawfal pinpointed Ramaswamy as the source. "That's your phone, Vivek, I'm not able to mute you," Nawfal noted.

As the urine stream came to a close on the livestream, Musk joked to Ramaswamy, "I hope you feel better now," to which Ramaswamy replied, "I feel great, thank you. Sorry about that guys." The inevitable jokes soon trickled in from social media. "Vivek is literally draining the swamp," one noted, per Business Insider. Another pondered, "Is he the first candidate we've heard pee?" As for Musk, he wrote in his own post: "I'm literally rofl rn." (More Vivek Ramaswamy stories.)

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