[Title3]
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
Doug Burgum:
The best of America is when neighbors help neighbors
When we talk about the best of America, growing up in a small town, the best of America is when neighbors help neighbors. When a farmer in North Dakota falls ill, the neighbors rally around, whether it's to get the crop planted or the crop harvested.
Every spring in western North Dakota in the Badlands, when it's time for spring branding and roundup, the neighbors show up. They couldn't get the work done if they weren't neighbors helping neighbors. And we need to get back to that.
Source: CBS Face the Nation on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jun 12, 2023
Asa Hutchinson:
Put the office of presidency and our country above yourself
You should put the office of presidency and our country above yourself. And whenever you've got these serious allegations against you, it's not fair to the country and certainly it's not fair to the party that wants to get this country back on track.
And so, to me, that is the high-level consideration the candidates should give to the important office of president in making that decision for the country's interest.
Source: ABC This Week on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jun 18, 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
Chris Christie:
America didn't become great by pulling up the drawbridge
America has never been a great country and the leader of the world by filling in the moat and pulling up the drawbridge. You know, we need to make sure that we're engaged. Because, believe me, this is the first fight in the proxy war with China.
But in the end, at the end of this sacrifice, I am absolutely a believer in the fact that America will be bigger, stronger, richer and more influential in the world because we stood by our principles and stood by our friends.
Source: ABC This Week on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jun 25, 2023
Corey Stapleton:
Formed a band called Corey Stapleton and The Pretty Pirates
After leaving elected office, the 55-year-old Stapleton formed a band called Corey Stapleton and The Pretty Pirates.
The press release said Stapleton believes music can bring people together.
Source: Helena Independent Record on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Nov 18, 2022
Doug Burgum:
The best of America is when neighbors help neighbors
The best of America is when neighbors help neighbors, when, when, when a farmer in North Dakota falls ill, the neighbors rally around – whether it's to get the crop planted or the crop harvested, you know, every spring in western North Dakota in the
Badlands, when it's time for spring branding and round up, the neighbors show up. They couldn't get the work done if they weren't neighbors helping neighbors. And we need to get back to that.
Source: CBS Face the Nation on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jun 11, 2023
Francis Suarez:
Parents came here for freedom; experienced American Dream
My parents were exiled from their country of birth, Communist Cuba, and they came here seeking freedom and have experienced the American Dream. Something that defines who I am as a person, and it defines the city that I run…
I know that if I'm on the stage and have an opportunity to introduce myself to the country, we're gonna continue to get volume.
Source: Twitter postings by 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Aug 8, 2023
Francis Suarez:
Most important part of my day is time I spend with Jesus
"I can tell you without hesitation that the most important part of my day is the time that I spend with Jesus. It's the relationship that shapes all other relationships, that allowed me to find and marry the love of my life, Gloria," Suarez added.
Suarez credited his faith with helping him form his "commitment to the culture of life from its inception until its end."
Source: The Christian Post on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jun 25, 2023
Francis Suarez:
I believe America is still a shining city on a hill
I believe America is still a shining city on a hill whose eyes of the world are upon us and whose promise needs to be restored.
And I believe the city needs more than a shouter or a fighter. I believe it needs a servant. It needs a mayor.
Source: PBS Newshour on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jun 16, 2023
Marianne Williamson:
I want to disrupt the system, not perpetuate it
So the system that is now saying that I'm unserious, and I'm not credible, or I'm a long shot is the very system that protects and maintains this idea that only those whose careers have been entrenched within the system that drove us into a
ditch should possibly be considered qualified to lead us out of that ditch. My qualification is not that I know how to perpetuate that system. My qualification is that I know how to disrupt it. And that is what we need.
Source: ABC This Week on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 5, 2023
Mike Pence:
I'm a Bible-believing Christian
In Lorie Smith's case, she made it clear she would take all customers in her website design, she just simply said that she could not create a website that would celebrate something that violated her religious beliefs. I'm a Bible-believing Christian.
I believe that every American is entitled to live, to work, to worship according to the dictates of their conscience. I'm so grateful that a strong majority of the court gave a victory for the religious freedom of every American of every faith.
Source: CBS Face the Nation on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jul 2, 2023
Mike Pence:
America is the leader of the free world
I went to Ukraine because America is the leader of the free world. We're the arsenal of democracy. I think President Joe Biden has truly failed to explain to the American people what our national interest is there.
I'm someone that believes that it's absolutely essential that the United States continue to provide military support to the Ukrainian military to push back on Russian aggression.
Source: CBS Face the Nation on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jul 2, 2023
Mike Pence:
United States is the gold standard of justice in the world
I have to tell you, as someone that has represented the United States on the world stage, as someone who was on the International Relations Committee for ten years, we're the gold standard of justice in the world. And to see a former president of the
United States be subject to an indictment by the administration of the current president, that he may well be facing again in the future, that sends a terrible message to the wider world.
Source: Meet the Press on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jun 18, 2023
Tim Scott:
Progressive left makes America into a grievance culture
I think it's really important for us to come forward and have an authentic and sincere conversation about the goodness of America. In today's society, the progressive left is trying to make America into grievance culture when
in fact we've always stood on the foundation of greatness. I wish we'd spend more time talking about the goodness of this nation and stop the cancel culture.
Source: Fox News Sunday on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Feb 26, 2023
Tim Scott:
A world without America is a very dark place
A world without America is a very dark place. America without faith is a nation without hope. So we definitely have to continue to work on the foundation that we have stood upon for the last 250-plus years. But in addition to that, we have to be able
to contrast between why we are a great country and why the left wants us to talk about the grievance. The fact is that the left is trying to sell a drug of victimhood and a narcotic of despair.
Source: Fox News Sunday on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Feb 26, 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:
To put America first, we need to rediscover what America is
I'm running to something. What it actually means to be an American. I'm an America first conservative, but I believe that to put
America first, we need to rediscover what America is. And I'm seeing the base across this country hungry for that message. And that's how we're going to win.
Source: ABC This Week on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jun 4, 2023
Will Hurd:
Christian Nationalism advocates for American theocracy
Being a good Christian is about living your life based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. Christian Nationalism is about advocating for America to be a
Theocracy - a government based on a single religion - like IRAN.
Source: Twitter posting on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jul 25, 2022
Chris Christie:
Politicians pit groups against each other to create conflict
We're dividing our country into smaller and smaller and smaller pieces. And politicians are pitting them against each other to create conflict. And that's not going to make the country bigger, better, stronger, or freer.
But if we improve our entire education system our kids' test scores are not going down, but going up, and they can get great jobs and be more competitive with the rest of the world. That's the kind of thing a president should be inspiring people to do.
Source: CBS Face the Nation on 2023 Presidential primary hopefuls
Jul 23, 2023
Doug Burgum:
The president is supposed to bring people together
If you're a legislator you put on your jersey, you fight for your side, you vote oftentimes along party lines. If you don't vote with the party, you vote at your peril. The president of the United States is the one that's supposed to unite people.
It's supposed to bring people together. It's supposed to paint a vision about a powerful, positive future. We've gone astray on that, where the presidency has also become hyper-partisan, no matter which party is in office.
Source: Meet the Press on 2023 Presidential primary hopefuls
Jul 9, 2023
Mike Pence:
The freedom of religion is our first freedom
I would say to every American that the freedom of religion is our first freedom, that's enshrined in the First Amendment for a reason. And from the moment the Supreme Court recognized same-sex marriage, the court had made a commitment that as they
move forward on that decision, that they would still respect the freedom of religion and the freedom of conscience of every American. I believe that every American is entitled to live, to work, to worship according to the dictates of their conscience.
Source: CBS Face the Nation on 2023 Presidential primary hopefuls
Jul 2, 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
Will Hurd:
Character matters; service matters; US has a world role
I was there to talk to the people that believe in personal responsibility, that believe character matters, that believe service matters, that believes that the United States has a role in the world and it's important to us back here at home.
And also to prove to the rest of the field that we're running for an election, and if you're afraid to talk about Donald Trump or talk about his baggage, then you're not ready to be president of the United States.
Source: Meet the Press on 2023 Presidential primary hopefuls
Jul 30, 2023
Mike Pence:
We all face the judgment of history, as will Trump
Q: You said that history will hold Donald Trump accountable. How?PENCE: Well, we all face the judgment of history. And I believe, in the fullness of time, that history will hold Donald Trump accountable for the events of January 6th. I also think the
American people will also have their say.
Q: Trump said in response to what you've said recently about January 6th that it was your fault. That if you had done what he was asking you to do, throwing out those electoral votes, you wouldn't have had a
January 6th as we know it.
PENCE: Well, I know one of the attorneys that was advising the president said the same thing in a text on January the 6th.
Q: Yes, John Eastman.
PENCE: But his attorneys were wrong and President Trump is wrong.
I know by God's grace we did our duty that day, to act out the expressed language of the Constitution of the United States. States control elections. Once states send electoral votes to the Congress, the only role the Congress has is to open and count.
Source: ABC This Week on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 19, 2023
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.:
America without censorship: I'm not a cancel-culture guy
Q: At what point do you say that this is not about "tribalism" or "cancellation" or the terms that you're using, but just an insistence on a certain level of decency? KENNEDY: I'm not going to pick out people and say that they're evil, they should be
cancelled, or whatever. I know what my values are. I believe in the same America that my father and my uncle believed in: an America without censorship; an America that fights for our Constitution; an America that is a moral authority around the world,
that projects economic power around the globe rather than military violence--if I can get people to support that, I don't care if they're Republican or independent, or what they are.
Q: Somebody like Alex Jones has nice things to say to you; do you
say, "Alex Jones, I don't want your support"?
KENNEDY: I'm not a cancel-culture guy.
Q: That's not cancel culture. That's a principled insistence that he's a bridge too far.
KENNEDY: That's not consistent with my political philosophy.
Source: The New Yorker magazine on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jul 7, 2023
Dean Phillips:
Part of informal Jewish caucus when need arises
When tensions flare up in the Middle East or a visiting Israeli dignitary wants to meet with American lawmakers, Congress' informal Jewish caucus springs into action. "There is increasingly a need for Jewish members to convene," said
Phillips, citing a rise in antisemitic hate crimes. "It is not a group with an agenda or a predetermined meeting schedule. It's really as necessary," said Phillips.
Source: Axios.com on 2023 presidential hopefuls
May 24, 2023
Dean Phillips:
His grandmother was advice columnist Dear Abby
A Jewish entrepreneur whose grandmother was advice columnist Dear Abby has won the Democratic primary for a key swing seat in suburban Minneapolis. Dean Phillips, who ran
Talenti Gelato and once made headlines by voluntarily giving his low-wage coffee company employees a raise, cruised to an 82%-to-18% victory over rival Cole Young.
Source: The Yiddish Forward on 2023 presidential hopefuls
May 24, 2023
Dean Phillips:
Don't amplify "America First Caucus" about hate & ignorance
Don't say the names of the people joining the "America First Caucus". Don't amplify their hate and ignorance.
Don't share their propaganda and enhance their fundraising. They are as relevant or irrelevant as WE make them. Ignorance isn't bliss, but it's better than amplification.
Source: Twitter posting on 2023 presidential hopefuls
Apr 16, 2021
Jill Stein:
Born into Jewish family, stresses she's no longer practicing
Stein was born five years after the end of World War II and grew up as part of a Jewish family in Chicago, though she stresses she is no longer practicing. As a political activist, she has also been outspoken about the ongoing war between
Israel and Hamas--describing Israel's intervention in Gaza following the October 7 militant attack as "genocide" and calling for the Israeli government to be investigated for potential war crimes.
Source: Newsweek magazine on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Dec 17, 2023
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.:
1980s: Failed the bar exam; struggled with drug addiction
After his father was killed, Kennedy "struggled to be a grown-up," as he puts it. He was kicked out of boarding schools and busted for marijuana possession, though he still attended Harvard.
He failed the bar exam and struggled with addiction. In the early 1980s, after being charged with heroin possession, he entered a drug-rehab facility.
Source: Time magazine "Very Online" on 2023 Presidential hopefulss
Jun 14, 2023
Donald Trump:
OpEd: Rose in reaction to fear of Obama, like Tea Party
Former president Barack Obama told David Axelrod that the rise of Donald Trump was related to the fears of having the first African-American president.Said Obama: "I think it's fair to say that something like the
Tea Party does not get the traction, generate the heat that it does had it not been for the fact that I represented something that looked like something very foreign to some people and scary."
He added: "I think if you tracked
Fox News coverage all the way up through Tucker Carlson talking about "white people are all being replaced and that Democrats are deliberately trying to bring in illegal immigrants and then give them voting rights and welfare checks
to buy them off and build a Democratic majority." I think that argument probably gets less traction if it wasn't me who was president at the time."
Source: PoliticalWire: The Axe Files on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jun 15, 2023
Page last updated: Nov 02, 2024