CNN "State of the Union" interviews for 2023 races: on Principles & Values
Vivek Ramaswamy:
Defining political debate is pro-American vs. anti-American
I do consider myself a conservative, but I don't believe that the defining political debate in this country is between Republicans and Democrats. I think it is between those who are fundamentally pro-American, whether you believe in the ideals
that set this nation into motion, from free speech and open debate, to meritocracy, to self-governance over aristocracy. Or are you anti- American? Do you actually wish to apologize for a nation whose existence is pinned to those ideals?
Source: CNN SOTU interviews on 2023/2024 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 13, 2023
Chris Christie:
Unacceptable to pressure officials to alter election results
It's absolutely unacceptable to be pressuring a governor or any elected official, as it was with the secretary of state in Georgia, to try to find votes to be able to win a state that you didn't win or to try to somehow come up with some kind of
ridiculous theory to overturn the results in Arizona. Let me tell you why he lost Arizona. He had become a caricature of himself, because he had not done the job the American people elected him to do.
Source: CNN interviews on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jul 2, 2023
Chris Christie:
Will take pledge to support nominee as seriously as Trump
Q: If Donald Trump is the nominee, will you pledge to support him and vote for him even if he's a convicted felon?CHRISTIE: We went to a debate, and we were all asked if we would reaffirm our support of whoever the nominee was going to be by raising
our hand. There were 10 of us on the stage. Nine of us raised our hands. The one who didn't was Donald Trump. And so I will take the pledge in 2024 just as seriously as Donald Trump took the pledge in 2016.
Source: CNN interviews on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jun 18, 2023
Vivek Ramaswamy:
Blames Biden for special counsel & indictment of Trump
Q: Trump's indictment [on withholding classified documents was] approved by a grand jury.RAMASWAMY: I think we have to be able to draw a distinction between bad judgments and breaking the law. And when especially the federal police apparatus
conflates the two, that's a threat to liberty for everyone, not just President Trump, but every American, where every misjudgment is treated as a violation of law.
Q: It is unprecedented.
RAMASWAMY: Based on the precedent of the Clinton sock drawer
case, it is at the president's sole discretion as to what is and is not covered as a presidential record, I think the court will acquit him. If Trump's judgment was bad, President Biden's judgment is worse for actually bringing a prosecution.
Q: Pres.
Biden didn't bring a prosecution.
RAMASWAMY: The Department of Justice reports into the President. And so this is a fig leaf. Get to the bottom of what Biden told [Attorney General Merrick] Garland and what Garland told [Special Counsel] Jack Smith.
Source: CNN interviews on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jun 11, 2023
Vivek Ramaswamy:
Deliver national unity with our shared American identity
We're in the middle of this national identity crisis. I think the opportunity for the GOP now is not just to complain about wokeness, or gender ideology, or climate ideology, but actually to go upstream and fill that black hole with a vision of
American national identity that runs so deep that it dilutes these agendas to irrelevance and actually unifies us as a country. I'm the candidate best positioned to actually deliver national unity by reawakening that shared American identity.
Source: CNN interviews on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 12, 2023
Vivek Ramaswamy:
Capitalism has to stay apolitical to bring us together
I think that it's inherently divisive to tell us that we're nothing more than the characteristics we inherit on the day we're born. That divides us on the basis of race and sex and sexual orientation.And then, when that merges with
capitalism, we lose the apolitical sanctuary in our economy, that otherwise brings us together, whether we're black or white, even whether we're Democrat or Republican. That's one of the underappreciated reasons why capitalism has to stay apolitical.
Source: CNN interviews on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 12, 2023
Vivek Ramaswamy:
For my part, I stand for the America first agenda
For my part, I stand for the America first agenda. I think I am the only candidate in this race, in the entire Republican primary field, who can deliver a Ronald Reagan 1980-style landslide election, a moral mandate in this election.
And I think that is critically important to unite this country and, frankly, to drive forward the agenda that I have to shut down the administrative state, to declare independence from China.
Source: CNN SOTU interviews on 2023 Presidential primary hopefuls
Jul 30, 2023
Page last updated: Sep 17, 2023