# Vivek Ramaswamy — "the climate change agenda is a hoax" > [!quote] "The climate change agenda is a hoax. … The reality is more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change." > — Vivek Ramaswamy, first Republican primary debate, Milwaukee, August 23, 2023 ## Context Said on the main stage of the first 2023 Republican presidential primary debate, where Ramaswamy was the only candidate to raise his hand declining to affirm human-caused climate change. The line drew audible boos and made national news; he repeated "the climate change agenda is a hoax" several times. ## Why this matters A receipt for the rhetorical evolution of climate denial: not "the climate isn't changing" but "the *agenda* is a hoax" — recasting climate policy itself as the threat, and asserting (without support) that climate policy kills more people than climate change does. It is a clean example of the anti-"woke"-capital framing Ramaswamy built his brand on, delivered at the highest-profile venue of the primary. ## Verification - **Reporting:** [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/26/politics/climate-change-republican-debate-ramaswamy/index.html); [Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/08/25/vivek-ramaswamy-says-hoax-agenda-kills-more-people-than-climate-change/). - **Status:** Verbatim from broadcast. Undisputed. ## Related quotes - [[Marc Andreessen - Techno-Optimist enemies list]] — the tech-right's parallel framing of climate and "sustainability" as enemy ideologies.