Vivek Ramaswamy on War & Peace

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.

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.

Defend our border, not Ukraine's

A: I would not support it. I think that this is disastrous, that we are protecting against an invasion across somebody else's border, when we should use those same military resources to prevent across the invasion of our own southern border. We are driving Russia further into China's hands. The Russia-China alliance is the single greatest threat we face. And I find it offensive, that we have professional politicians on the stage that will make a pilgrimage to Kyiv, to their Pope, Zelenskyy, without doing the same thing for people in Maui or Chicago. Ukraine is not a priority for the United States. And I think that the same people that took us into Iraq War--you not start another no-win war. And I do not want to get to the point where we're sending our military resources abroad when we could be better using them here at home.

Abraham Accords 2.0; I love the Iron Dome

Vivek RAMASWAMY: False. You've been pushing this lie all week.

HALEY: But you want to go and defund Israel. You want to give Taiwan to China.

RAMASWAMY: So our relationship with Israel will be stronger by the end of my first term. But it's not a client relationship. It is a friendship. And you know what friends do? Friends help each other stand on their own two feet. So I will lead Abraham Accords 2.0. I will partner with Israel to make sure Iran never is nuclear-armed.

But you know what I love about Israel? And I have been there probably in the last 10 years more than most people on this stage. You know what I love about them? I love their border policies. I love their tough-on-crime policies. I love that they have a national identity and an Iron Dome to protect their homeland. And so, yes, I want to learn from the friends that we're supporting.

FactCheck: Cut aid to Israel in 2028; it'll be unneeded then

Gov. Nikki HALEY: He wants to stop funding Israel.

RAMASWAMY: False. I will lead Abraham Accords 2.0. I will partner with Israel to make sure Iran never is nuclear-armed.

FactCheck from The Jerusalem Post, Aug. 23, 2023:In June, while campaigning in NH, Ramaswamy suggested that he would be open to ending aid to Israel as "part of a broader disengagement with the Middle East." He later walked back those comments. But last week, he told podcaster Russell Brand that he does want to end US aid to Israel in 2028, the year when the current US commitment to provide $3.8 billion annually to Israel expires: "Come 2028, that additional aid won’t be necessary in order to still have the kind of stability that we’d actually have in the Middle East by having Israel more integrated with its partners," he said, [offering to] spearhead extending the Abraham Accords with Indonesia and Oman.

Ukraine not a priority; use military to protect our borders

Ukraine is not a priority for the United States of America. And I do not want to get to the point where we're sending our military resources abroad when we could be better using them here at home to protect our own borders.