Fourth GOP presidential primary debate: on War & Peace

Chris Christie: I would send US military to defend Taiwan

Ron DeSantis: We will be able to deter that from happening. We have longstanding American policy [known as "strategic ambiguity," where the US doesn't promise to send US troops to Taiwan, or not--OTI], and we will follow that.

Chris Christie: I want to be really clear: if China went after Taiwan, you're absolutely right, I would, as president, have us go militarily and defend them.

Vivek Ramaswamy: I'm going to respectfully disagree with Ron here. At least for the foreseeable future, the US will absolutely defend Taiwan. The reason why we're not doing it for China, is because we're scared, because we depend on them for our modern way of life.

Christie: I'm not afraid based upon those economic relationships to do that because these economic relationships mean nothing. If what's going to happen is that China is going to come and act in that region of the world however they see fit.

Chris Christie: Damn right I'd send US troops to Gaza

Chris Christie: I would, absolutely. Absolutely. If they had a plan which showed me that we could get them out safely, you're damn right I'd send the American Army in there to get our people home and get them home now, and I'll answer that question directly.

Nikki Haley: Go hard after Iranian infrastructure in Syria & Iraq

Haley: No, I was not saying it's time to bomb Iran. But I dealt with Iran every day when I was at the United Nations and they only respond to strength. What they don't respond to is when you weaken the sanctions like they did on Iran that allowed China to send them billions to fill their proxies, what they don't respond to is when you give $6 billion for five hostages, that only makes them want more hostages. What they don't respond to is when they do 140 strikes on our men and women in Syria and Iraq and we do nothing but just some small shots back. You've got to punch them, you've got to punch them hard and let them know that, that's the only way they're going to respond. So the way you do that is you go after their infrastructure in Syria and Iraq where they're hitting our soldiers.

Nikki Haley: Win in Ukraine to protect Taiwan

Nikki Haley: Win in Ukraine to protect Taiwan from China

If China pulled the rug out from under us tomorrow, would we be ready? Think about what happened during COVID. Everybody told you to wear a mask, they were made in China. Everything that happened, if you go to the drugstore, all those medicines are made in China. We have to make sure that we are not relying on China for anything related to our national security, which means let's start focusing on doing deals with our friends now.

Ron DeSantis: Iran is attacking U.S. as part of Israel-Hamas war

DeSantis: This administration is trying to hobble Israel from being able to defend itself. They have a right to eliminate Hamas and win a total and complete victory so that they never have to deal with this again. Hamas wants nothing less than a second Holocaust, they would wipe off every single Jew off the map. They would destroy the state of Israel if we could. Look, I served in Iraq back in the day. I'm the only one running for president that served in the military, I understand that part of the world. It's not the best part of the world. We do have troops there that Biden is leaving basically as sitting ducks and you have the Iranians that are attacking these troops and he's responding with basically pinpricks. If you harm an American service member, you're going to have hell to pay when I'm president.

Ron DeSantis: Deter China from invading Taiwan: #1 national security task

Ron DeSantis: We will be able to deter that from happening. I think that's the important thing, we need a strategy of denial so that we're deterring [China's President] Xi's ambitions.

Q: What if it doesn't work?

DeSantis: It's going to work. Taiwan's an ally. We have longstanding American policy [known as "strategic ambiguity," where the US doesn't promise to send US troops to Taiwan, or not-- OTI], and we will follow that. But here's the thing, Taiwan is important because if China's able to break out of this first island chain, they're going to dominate commerce in the entire Indo-Pacific. They will use that to export authoritarianism all around the world, including here in the US. Deterring China's ambitions is the number one national security task that I will do as president and we will succeed. The 21st century needs to be an American century. We cannot let it be a Chinese century.

Vivek Ramaswamy: Hamas attack was dead wrong, but not an attack on America

Gov. Chris Christie: I would, absolutely; you're damn right I'd send the American Army in there to get our people home.

Q: The Hamas terror attack left dozens of Americans dead. You criticized Nikki Haley for saying "Finish them"?

Vivek Ramaswamy: "Finish them" was purposefully vague in a discussion that included Iran, which is what I objected to. And I think it's as US president, you have to be responsible. What happened to Israel was dead wrong, what Hamas did was medieval. It was subhuman, it was immoral. And we have to call that out for what it is on October 7th. But to say that that was an attack on America fails a basic test. That is irresponsible because it has major consequences because that doesn't leave room for what actually is an attack on America.

Vivek Ramaswamy: US will absolutely defend Taiwan: that's deterrence

Ron DeSantis: We will be able to deter that from happening.

Q [to Ramaswamy]: You said, if you want to stop Xi from invading Taiwan, "Let's open a branch of the NRA in Taiwan and put an AR-15 in the hands of every family and train them how to use it." Is this a serious policy proposal?

Vivek Ramaswamy: Well, it's part of a broader deterrence strategy, and so, I think I'm going to respectfully disagree with Ron here. I think the next U.S. president needs to be crystal clear that at least for the foreseeable future, the U.S. will absolutely defend Taiwan, and it is with that clarity that we actually achieve deterrence. But I have a broader strategy than that. I also do believe the Second Amendment is a critical way of preventing foreign autocrats from [action]. So, it is part of a broader strategy, but I do think that we need to be specific about our deterrence strategy.