Transcripts For CSPAN Campaign 20240704

Politics. Announcer 2024 republican president ial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy spoke at the politics anpies event hosted by the Concord City Republican Committee in New Hampshire. After brief remarks, mr. Ramaswamy took questions from the audience on a number of topics, including cha, the southern border of the u. S. , Election Integrity, and how best to unite the country. It is about one hour, 25 minutes. Vivek thank you. Thank you for the warm welcome, guys. I have to say, give another applause to mark for that beautiful introduction and the history. I really learned a lot from you, mark. It is an honor for someone like me. I am seeking to be the next president , leading us to a National Revival to think back to the people with whom we actually got here. Lincoln in 1860 i was not planning to talk about this today, but one of the words of Abraham Lincoln that rings true today i am ok without that fan. I think that one was meant for me. I am ok without it if you guys can hear me better. One of the things about lincoln and the height of the civil war was a warning he actually issued to his fellow americans that we would do well to remember today. What he said was this was close to the height of the civil war. What he said in his famous speech in the middle of the civil war was that the dogmas of a quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. Dogmas of a quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. I think we would do well to remember those words today. I think the dogmas of 1980 are inadequate to address the unique challenges that we face in the year 2023. I think that is what we are going to talk about today. What is the next frontier for our movement . For a long time, we as conservatives, we have been running from something. This is our moment to actually start running to something. And that is what we are going to talk about today. This is how we drive generational change. We are in the middle of a National Identity crisis. Faith, patriotism, hard work, family. These things have disappeared, and that leaves a black hole, a moral vacuum, in its wake. And when you have a black hole that runs that deep, that is when the poison fills the void. Wokeism. Transgenderism. Climatism. Covidism depression. Anxiety. Fentanyl. Suicide. Do you think it is a coincidence that we see the rise of these epidemics right at the same time in our National History . It is not. Same time in our National History . It is not. These are symptoms of a deeper void of purpose and meaning in our country. I am speaking to you tonight as a member of my generation. I am 37 years old and the youngest person to ever run for u. S. President as a republican, and im speaking to you as a member of my generation when i say this. We are all so hungry for a cause and we are hungry for purpose and meaning, and identity. At a time in our history when the things that used to fill that void, faith, patriotism, at a time in our National History when the things that used to fill that void faith, patriotism, belief in country, hard work, family when those things have disappeared, we still hunger to be part of something bigger than ourselves, yet we cannot even answer what it means to be an american. That is the void, that is the black hole. And i say this is our moment as a conservative movement to now level up, to step up, and to fill that void with a vision of what it means to be an american. A vision of National Identity that runs so deep that it dilutes the poison to irrelevance. That is how we are going to win. This is the work we have cut out for us. Its not just pointing the finger at the other, its look at ourselves in the mirror and asking ourselves who we really are. The left is masterful at filling that void. They will give us race, gender, sexuality, climate. And for too long, we have satisfied ourselves by just saying, hey, we are against those things. But now is our moment to say, no no no, we are not just running from something, we are running to something. If the left gives us race, gender, sexuality and climate, i want us here talking more about the value of each individual, the family, the nation, god. Individual, family, nation, god that beats race, gender, sexuality and climate, if we have the courage to actually stand for it. The if we have the courage to stand. That is what it means to be an american. We stand for those foundational values that we still share in common. What does it mean to be an american . That is what we are going to talk about. We believe in the ideals that set this nation into motion in place is not that far from where we are tonight. It means ideals like meritocracy and the pursuit of excellence, that you get ahead in this country not by the color of your skin but on the contents of your character and your contributions. That is why i have said that we will be ending affirmative action and everys fear of american life. We will be ending it. That is what it means to be an american. We stand for meritocracy. Thank you. What does it mean to be an american . It means. That people like my. Get to come to this country legally, through the front door. They followed the rules and paid their taxes. They raised two of us. My brother and i went on to found companies that employed thousands of people and helped thousands of americans. We should be open to two immigrants like them, but it also means your first act of entering this country cannot break the law. I will use them u. S. Military to secure our southern border and then was in border as well. What does it mean to be a citizen of this nation . It means we believe in a radical dream that i have as a citizen today. Let the people we elect to run the government should at least be the ones who actually run the government. Not this managerial, state that runs the show today. That is why as you next president , i will not just reformed this bureaucracy. When we have Government Agencies that should not exist from the u. S. Department of education to the fbi, to the atf, to the irs, to the seas the we will not just reform and tinker around the edges. We will shut them down and restore the integrity of a constitutional republic, not as a slogan or a checkbox, but something that restores the true purpose and function of the government in the first place. I want you all to challenge me and push me. I want to get into the depths of it. How we will still keep those essential functions that move them to the u. S. Marshals where the dea, the sliver of vocational training, it takes detail, but it takes commitment. If i cannot work for you all as a taxpayer i think it is a good thing. Neither should any of those bureaucrats either. We need eight year term limits instead of those Civil Service protections. That is what it means to have a government accountable to its people. We fall into that trap as candidates sometimes. That is not the finish line. For me, the finish line is january of 2033, when i leave office. My older a country for him for them. It could be a country even greater then the country that i grew up in. I want to tell you what moves me. What do i tell you all when i am leaving the white house . I want to tell you that once again in the u. S. , we have three branches, coequal branches, not four, that we shut down the Administrative State. I want to tell you in january 2030 three, that we as americans are no longer dependent on our enemy, communist china, for our modern way of life. I want to tell you in january 2033 that american exceptionalism is alive and well and our economy is growing faster. I want to tell you, most importantly of all that young americans, all americans, we are once again proud to be citizens of this nation. I believe it is possible. I believe it is within our beach to do it, but we will have to be courageous, to make a twice, to get there and the choice we face is a selection. The choice we face in the primary is this. Do you want incremental reform in this country . Or do you want revolution . I stand on the side of the American Revolution, those ideals. There are other, good people, fellow patriots running in this race. I view them as colleagues. I am not running against any of them. I am running for this nation. I am going to need every one of them. Im going to save ourselves. But i do not believe it can be done by reforming the deep state, the Administrative State, our relationship with china. The moment for reforms has passed, if it ever existed. This is an idea to revive the ideals, where we said we came together as one people, to form a government that was accountable to its people rather than the other way around. We believe that we could be trusted with the truth, that we the people decide how we sort out our differences through fee free speech and debate in the Public Square where every vote counts equally and it is we the people who determine our destiny, not a small group of elites in the back of old world england. We rejected that view. We said we do it differently on this side of the atlantic. We can handle the truth. The government believed it had to tell the people a noble lie to keep them quiet and compliant. We america say there is no lie the as that is a noble lie. What the origin of the pandemic was 2. 5 years ago, what the actual basis was for locking down our schools or mandating vaccines in this country, what the actual basis was for suppressing a laptop story that has proven to be true on the eve of and election, what the truth was about that transgender manifesto, calling for the release of that manifesto, we live in a moment where our government believes that we the people cannot handle the truth, that we the people cannot be trusted with the truth. It turns out the trust is a two way relationship. The reason the people do not trust the government today is because we have a government that does not trust its people. If i bring one thing, it will be transparent, truth and accountability. We start now by speaking the truth, speaking the hard truth, speaking truth that is what makes usus us. Us us. It is the people who say what they think in public. The only way we will do better is if we start to talk openly again. That is what we do in this theater. In this theater were Teddy Roosevelt spoke just over a century ago, we continue that tradition. I want to hear from all of you. To say in public what you would say in private. This is what i am doing in every step of this campaign. We do not need we need patriots to speak the truth. That is what we are going to do tonight. God is real. There are two genders. Fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity. Reverse racism is racism, and open border is not a border. Parents determine the education of their children. The Nuclear Family is the best known form of governance to mankind. Capitalism is the best system known to man, to lift people up from poverty. And we will not apologize for it. There are three branches of government, not four. And the u. S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedom in Human History. That is the truth. We stand up for the truth and we fight for the truth. That is what brought us the American Revolution and what will win us the revolution of 2024. Thank you for coming out tonight. We are just getting warmed up. If you get too hot, wave your hands and well turn the fans back on. If everything goes right and you become president , will you commit to firing everybody in the government who had a hand in the fouryear persecution of donald trump, all the lies, all the baloney, id use a bigger word. Baloneys fine. Will you do that . Because thats the person ill support. But if someone will not do that, i will not give that person my support. Thats an easy answer, absolutely yes. And i will go one step further for you because this is a system. Thats the easy part, actually. Heres the hard part. That monster, we fall in the trap of thinking its just individuals. Its a machine. Its actually bigger than any one of those individuals. In fact, heres the hard part. Many of them in their private lives when they go home, i have full confidence theyre good people in their own lives. Most people are inherently good as individuals. But when you create a machine that never should have existed in the first place, that exists outside the bounds of the three Branch Constitutional republic we set into motion, thats when you create a demon thats far bigger than the human beings and what was called a leviathon. You cant contain it. We have to slay the leviathon. At the first term well have a 75 head count reduction across all federal employees, 50 of that by the end of the first year in office. This is noted incremental reform. We have to take quantum leaps. Thats the kind of authority we need. The fact theyre going after trump now still this many years later is sad. I was in nashville and then the courthouse where hes being arraigned. I had to be in washington, d. C. And i went to give a brief speech about the revival of truth in government. But the fact theyre still going after him, we havent solved the problem. I dont have to relearn the same lessons. Theres the Civil Servant protections that stop you from firing people. I do thinking it takes an outsider. Im a c. E. O. And did not come from government and have not earned a government paycheck in my life. If i can manage to do it while u. S. President , i hope to keep it that way. You dont get tainted to what you get addicted to. You cant fire people in the federal government. It turns out that you also need somebody who understands the law and the constitution in this country. Read the law. The Civil Service protections apply to individual firings to stop the president from firing a person because i dont believe in your views working at the s. E. C. Or whatever. They do not apply to mass layoffs and mass layoffs are absolutely what i am bringing to the federal bureaucracy in washington, d. C. So thats actually why we already have the Legal Authority to do it, we need a president with a spine to carry it through. Thats what im bringing. Thank you, my man. I appreciate it. Next question, please. Tell me your name. Oh, we just saw you. Yes, we met downstairs. My mouth was full eating broccoli. Thats fine. When youre president for eight years, youre going to have to face the issue of Social Security. And there are a few people here who are collecting right now. I dont know if everybody is aware if nothing is done, everybody will get a 24 haircut and theyre going to have to start means testing and a lot of other to raise the retirement age, you know. Whats your view here, how are we going to solve this problem . Mr. Ramaswamy were starting with such a rock bottom basis of trust of this country that i want to be clear about one thing, no cuts for seniors on social secured and medicare. We have to stand by the commitments we already made as a basic backdrop of trust. What im focused on is economic growth, g. D. P. Growth in this country. Turns out if we continue growing at one point something percent a year, youre right, were out of money. If were back to 4 g. D. P. Growth, we grow our way out of many fiscal problems. How do we grow the economy . Lets start with that. Open american energy, embrace nuclear energy, burn, frak, coal. Dont pay people federal funds to stay at home. Stabilize the dollar as a measurement of money. Shutting down the government of the state and is some of the reforms that act like a wet blanket on the u. S. Economy. Thats back to 5 g. D. P. Growth and then it gets the backdrop of having more money in our pocket and growing our way out of our problems and our debt to g. D. P. Ratio improves if our g. D. P. Grows faster and we have rational conversations about quirks in Social Security today, like the fact if youre a working senior, youre actually penalized for working. Many want to continue working and yet in some cases there are seniors in this country only getting two cents for every incremental dollar they make because we disincentivize work. This is nutty. We have more Jobs Available in this country than we do have people. So for people who want to work, they should still be able to get their Social Security payments they paid in to but also earn on top of that. Thats how we deliver economic growth. Its working out some of these unintentional quirks in Social Security that waste money. Then we ought to learn some lessons in the past. Back when we did have a Social Security surplus it wasnt that long ago, but if we allowed that money to be invested in Social Security in the same way your financial adviseer recommend you invest your money in a diversified portfolio, we would be in surplus. Its the bureaucracy thats the source of the problem. And if we dont learn from our mistakes of the past, were destined to make the same mistakes in the future. That bureaucracy acts as the impediment of american growth. Pare it down and unshackle ourselves to unleash the beast of economy and fix the quirks and get back to a place of surplus and actually allow people to invest it in a diversified portfolio that invest including the market so we can catch up and never make this mistake again. Thats what i intend to do against the backdrop principle of no cuts for seniors because we have to anchor trust for people to get what theyve actually been promised. Thank you. I appreciate that question. Thank you. Thank you. We have one right here. Thank you. Vivek, thank for you coming back to concord. As a successful c. E. O. , you have a wellestablished managerial leadership style. Adopting that to the washington situation is going to take a lot of adjustment. What do you see as some of the challenges adapting your Corporate Strategy managerial style to the very interesting washington experience . Mr. Ramaswamy its a great question. Weve done it this way and ill do it again and run the executive branch as a company i built as an entrepreneur. No, it doesnt work that way. I think the difference here is there will be skill sets i gain that are helpful but this is going to be the process of creative destruction, actually. I think were going to have to take the model of the phoenix. I think its a false hubris to think we can go in and reform these agencies. We cannot. It is going to have to be the model of the phoenix when necessary. One of these things i havent shared this before but why not . Ill share it with you now. Were already working on our transition planning. The people were going to staff in not only cabinet level positions and those are things that get you press releases but related to the plumbing of the federal government and runs the personnel management, like the h. R. Bureaucracy of the federal government, who runs the o. M. B. , like the c. E. O. Of the federal government. These are positions i dont want people who are pro government but fundamentally want those who share my antigovernment, antibureaucratic instincts to be bulldogs in this position. I dont want people this is one of the mistakes one of the learning from the trump experience was putting people in those positions who wanted to be ambassadors of the managerial class back to the u. S. President. No, i dont want managerial class members there, i want bulldogs who are there to implement the division of cutting 75 of the federal bureaucracy. One of my lessons in the private sector as in the executive branch of the government, 25 of the people get 90 of the value delivered. So if were going to have a 75 head count reduction, which are the 25 that you keep . One of the things were working on, and we have a Multidisciplinary Group working on this now is large scale screening, testing from psychological to knowledge about the federal government to competence to work ethic, the way we scale is pick out who those one out of four are were going to keep, selecting as excellence as the basis to do it. One of the great learnings from the last time around is youve got a short time to work with. That first year youve got to get stuff done. One of the mistakes made by prior president is they focus on legislative agenda. Thats a mistake. Legislative agendas take a long time. Theyre designed to work slowly through congress. What im starting with is how i can run the executive branch of the government already without asking congress for permission or forgiveness because thats the job of the u. S. President. Im learning from my predecessors and were Getting Started on the job, one of the other learnings from 2016 is, we cant wait until you get elected and were starting now. The good news is you get to see, those of you who came here probably saw the giant poster boards we unveiled with the anatomy of how we would reorganize different branches of the government, the kinds of people we would put in charge. Thats the phase of the campaign were in now. The first few months was telling you who i am and what i stand for and many dont know who i am across the country. But now were moving to the specifics, not the what but the how do we get it done. It doesnt start in january of 2025, its already started now and how well be successful in seeing it through. My friend in the back. You turned 10, remind me your name again. L. J. Mr. Ramaswamy. Good to see you, young man. You came to one of our first events in New Hampshire. L. J. i have a new question. So so what will do you with the money we receive from china and what will you do with the money weve already spent from our government . Mr. Ramaswamy first of all, l. J. Is 10 years old and asks me some of the best questions i get. Lets give l. J. A round of applause here. Im is so proud of you for being a concerned citizen. What grade are you in . L. J. fifth. Mr. Ramaswamy theres an old saying if you cant explain it to a fifth grader, you probably dont know what you mean yourself. Lets see if i can meet that test, ok. Its kind after complicated issue. Heres the game china played with us. We told ourselves we could export big macs and happy meals and somehow spread democracy to places like china, global capitalism. What china realized is that actually we can win that game. We thought we would use our money to get them to be more like us. Whats happened is they realized they could use access to their market, mare money to get us to be more like them. One step worse than that, they realized they could use our money to get us to be more like them, and its worked. So thats how you get to large u. S. Companies systematically criticizing the u. S. Without saying a peep in china, systematically applying Carbon Emissions caps to people at home, black rock, do you that and chevron and exxon tell you that you cant release carbon in this country in the interest of Global Climate change, where that same carbon emission is now being picked up on the other side of the world by the likes of pet roll china and you look who is none other the older of petrol china is black rock using the chinese money to do it. Its not capitalism but mark mark an tilism calling our own farce using our Companies Back against us as lobbying pawns, forced data transfers, technology transfers. Ill share something with you that you probably dont know. Its not a Conspiracy Theory but plain old boring reality. Air bnb. Anybody use air bnb . A few of you. So air bnb literally has to hand over the user data of american users on its platform as a condition for air bnb being able to do business in china. Including private messages between the renter and host. Thats not capitalism, folks, its mercantilism. Its the use of our own companies as trojan horses to undermine the United States from within. This is our moment to say we will sign the declaration of independence that Thomas Jefferson signed in 1776. By the way, he wasnt that much older than you were back then, he was about 14 years older than you, 24 years old, the guy signed the declaration of independence, the greatest Mission Statement written for a country in Human History. Thats the declaration of independence ill sign as your next president saying well not depend on the enemy for the shoes on our feet or phones in our pockets. And you know what will happen . China will fold and say we have to play by the same rules. It will hurt them than it would hurt us. We need the spine after leader with the courage of conviction to actually stand for the interest of this country. Thats what its going to take. And if we revive that, then well have a china that actually does play by the same set of rules or else well declare independence and cut the cord. Thats where i am. L. J. , thank you. Proud of you every time. Stay engaged and ask the teachers those questions and maybe youll teach them Something Back in return. Im proud of you. Next question . Why dont we take one in the blue shirt. Tell me your name again, sir. Brian. One of the major issues i see is the division in this country. Its almost like you cant even be friends with someone that thinks differently than you. This country is so divided. And i think is there a leader somewhere in this country that can actually unite us. Are you that guy . I dont think trump has the ability to unite us. I think we need to unite this country. How do you do that . Do you see that as an important issue or is it too far gone like i almost feel it is . Mr. Ramaswamy it is not gone. I understand why you think so. First of all, im going to Say Something as a trev us preface to this. Its not a oneman job. Dont expect someone on high to come from the white house to save us. Im not letting you off the hook that easily. If were going to save ourselves we have to practice what we preach and be the change we want to see in our country. This is up to us. We start with this culture. I dont believe and youll never hear this from me, some sort of false kumbaya optimism, its morning in america again. Its not. It can be. But we have to see the president with clear eyes to be ok. Heres what ill do. If you see me not doing it and hold my feet to the fire and make sure i continue to do it. Well talk to everybody on this campaign. I dont think its a good thing until my fellow republicans say they wont talk to nbc news because theyre not nice to them. From don lemon to chuck todd to the Breakfast Club to New England College where we were here in New Hampshire to College Campuses across this country to the south side of chicago to kensington in the inner city of pennsylvania, at least my pledges, i will show up. We will have the conversation. We may not agree with everything but at least well talk in the open. You know what ive discovered through that . Not in the media so much, thats a distorted monster of its own. But among real people in this country, when we went to the south side of chicago, we left with far more Common Ground than any of us, myself included, expected to find with respect to the importance of sealing the southern border with the importance of why it could possibly be were spending 200 billion to secure somebody elses border against an invasion when were not protecting against an invasion on our southern border where many of those people are now living in South Shore High School thats been turned into a encampment when migrants ask the question, what about me as an american who lives here . And i think the America First movement is not just for conservatives but all americans by definition. When i went to kensington, what do i find . You find people who, by the way, my parents were immigrants from india, we used to visit my grandparents in india, it was a third world nation, the parts of rural india we visited in the 1990s, ive not seen something worse than kensington, pennsylvania, and philadelphia where i visited last month. Never seen Something Like it. People shooting up in the streets in the middle of the day. What do they say . They say the aids programs constitute giving away needles and crack pipes, paying people to do the exact opposite of what might be best for them. I think theres unity around these issues. But i think the way we get to National Unity is not by going to sound odd when i say this, but i think is deeply true. The way we get to National Unity is not through compromise. On our principles. The way we get to National Unity is by being uncompromising about the principles that unite all of us as americans. We have for the last decade i grew into this the last couple decades and celebrated our diversity and differences so much that we forgot all the ways were really just the same as americans, bound by a common set of ideals that set this nation into motion 250 years ago. And lets be really honest with ourselves, those are radical ideals. Those are extreme ideals. Free speech. The idea you get to speak your mind as long as i get to in return. Selfgovernance, the idea we the people can be trusted to sort out the most difficult disagreements we have in a constitutional republic, that were a nation of laws and not of men but we believe in the unbridled pursuit of excellence. These are radical ideals because for most of Human History it was done the other way. No, its not through moderation well achieve National Unity. Well achieve National Unity by embracing the radicalism of the American Revolution itself. Thats what i believe. Thats what unites us and what we mean when we say e pluribus unum. From many, one. That is what reunited us after the civil war and what won us two world wars in the cold war. That is the vision that still gives hope to the free world and that is what we will need to revive if we have a last standing chance and youll believe it, ill stand here firm until they force me out. We will make sure that we reunite this country as one nation, not some National Divorce but a National Revival where our best days are still ahead of us where were not in some divided decline but were still in our assent as a nation. I believe it can be so. I think it will take someone outside of government to deliver it and take someone who has personally lived and experienced the American Dream to deliver it. I think it will take someone quite possibly of a different generation to deliver it to our youth. Who can be proud of this country again. That is my job. That is my responsibility. That is my promise. Thank you. I appreciate it, my man. Thank you. Where is the microphone . You pick. Well start with this gentleman right here. My name is brian alsol. Will you stand with israel in spite of what other nations do . Mr. Ramaswamy. yes. The reason i stand with israel, i have no personal lineage ties or anything like this to israel. The reason i stand with israel is because its the right thing to do for america, actually. So heres how i want to actually see our israel policy progress. I think one of the great accomplishments of trumps Foreign Policy was the Abraham Accords, a belief we did not have to hold an entire region and a nation hostage over settling one complicated old score in palestine, to say that we can move forward and reintegrate israel into other wouldbe friendly nations in the middle east without having to settle completely that old score, that we can still move forward on the other fronts. So my top goal, and i think i can deliver this my first year in office, Abraham Accords 2. 0, lets get indonesia and qatar in there and propels israel forward. So then we might get to a place where by 2028 when our current 30 billion commitment 38 billion commitment which i absolutely stand by and view as sacrosanct, we may be in a place we remain with the Abraham Accords we are in a place they meant us to be. I support israel because its in the american interests and from israels perspective its a stronger commitment than somebody that happens to have a preference versus a nation that says no, this is in our interests, actually. Many of those weapons in ukraine landed in the wrong hands, how do we know its not the israeli intelligence. How about from the iron dome, its been useful for the Missile Defense of the United States. When its in our selfinterest, with thats the strongest basis of in israels selfinterest, too. It gets to the Broader Vision of my Foreign Policy. Im a George Washington America First conservative. I dont listen to inauguration speeches like i said. 2024 isnt the start line for me. I Pay Attention to Farewell Speeches, Ronald Reagans in 1989, dwight d. Eisenhowers when he left office, George Washingtons all time best Farewell Speech where he said that we would base our Foreign Policy based on what advances american interest. So thats the prism through which i will view everything. I dont think we have independent humanitarian obligations. I think our best version of being a humanitarian in the world is by being strong at home. When america is strong, the rest of the free world still has hope that we are that shining city on the hill and what hope we have is america ourselves is weak. Thats what i think of Foreign Policy and why i come down strongly on the side of israel rather than dignifying a lot of the nonsense the Biden Administration has been paying homage to in the last four years. Thank for you that question. Thank you. If well go to ok. Well go to the back later. A young woman in the front. Thank you so much. I just wanted to ask, so im 17, im going to be coming out of high school here. And of course im thinking about college. Ive also spent my first year in high school during the pandemic and those were the worst years of my life. For anyone who has kids who knows what it was like to go through online class, i can attest theres nothing more isolating than sitting behind a screen. So for the past two years ive been doing work in the Education Sector specifically through a nonprofit ive started. And doing that, i began to collect data thats been showing kids especially of High School Age are at least 25 years behind where theyre supposed to be. Coming into college with College Tuition prices at an all time high, what is going to be happening . Never have kids been more pushed to go into college than they are today but now theyre graduating with degrees many cant use, now strapped with college debt and the government is coming to clear that debt. Which is a very vicious cycle. I want to know how we in concrete steps can fix the rift that covid has caused as well as aids, the financial mountain that stands in front of all college students. Mr. Ramaswamy first of all, im so proud of you for going through hardship i dont need to tell you this but tell people about this all the time, youre the example of it. Hardship is not a choice, its a choice our government made and i think its the wrong choice. For you it was not a choice. Hardship is something is that happens to you. But victimhood is a choice. You did not choose to be a victim. Youve educated yourself, apparently started in a nonprofit, now on the eve of entering college with more knowledge about this issue than most politicians i need in washington, d. C. Im proud of you and you give me hope. Tell me your name. Lets give ria, 17yearold student in New Hampshire, a round of applause. Youre spot on. So i believe that we have a moral obligation, a sort of debt, actually, a moral debt to the covid generation of kids in this country. I wish i could tell you we could fix the past. We cannot fix the past. The best we can do is learn from our mistakes and do better in the future. If we had been just think about this. If we had been allowed to debate the merits of school closures, we would have never closed those schools. But we were told to shut up, sit down and do as youre told, that youre racist and out of line, whatever the namecalling was, you had to be blind, you had to obey. And now we have to pay for it, a generation of kids who will never get that year or two years for some of those kids back. You want to talk about inequality i had a interesting experience because i went to a relatively Bad Public School first through eighth grade and went to Saint X High School in cincinnati 9 through 12th grade and im on the board of that school now. That school was closed for a total of four days in the pandemic. Cincinnati Public Schools missed a whole year. So dont you tell me that math is racist because black kids are performing more poorly on math than asian or white kids. Math is not racist, two plus two is still four. What might be inequitable is failing to teach a bunch of those black kids how to do math on behest of some Teachers Union protection which was basically a year of quasivacation. How will we reform education in in this country . First is cut off the head of the snake, the u. S. Department of education. We have to shut it down. Take that hads 80 billion and by the way, for your question, this is the same department of education that is falsely goading kids to take fouryear threes that is not serving them well without doing a thing of vocational programs, one year programs that would better serve kids to make the right choice for them. Its the same department of education that says you dont get the money as a Public School unless you adopt these toxic gender inequalities. Adopt that hads 80 billion and give it to the parents and let them have true choice where they send those kids to school, including the high school i went to, Saint X High School or others in New Hampshire, thats great. Now we have true School Choice 2. 0, starve the bureaucracy of the Teachers Unions. And actually, this is a dirty secret for you, you may know it because youre so knowledgeable and may know what im about to tell you. The Public Schools in this country that spend the most per student are also the schools that have the worst achievement results. Think about how twisted that is. If youre a parent that takes one of those kids out of a failing Public School to a different Charter School or private school, you get to take half the difference with you. So lets say in new york city, give you an example, 40,000 per student per year, theres Charter Schools spending 15,000 per student per year with light years better academic results. So the difference of that hads 25,000, you get to take half the difference, 12, 500 with you. If you put that in that kids account over the course of 12 years from first through 12th grade, that kid is graduating with a quarter million gift with investment returns over 300,000 graduation gift. You tell me which is a better use of money, its not even close. Let those how do Public Schools compete with private schools and Public Schools . Get rid of the Teachers Unions. Theyre the greatest source of handcuffs on the Public Schools. Now we have true choice. We have School Choice on steroids. And then say transparency, if you teach it in the classroom, put it on the internet. Youre afraid to put it on the internet you probably shouldnt be teaching in the classroom. Now we revive Civic Education in the country to say every high school student, i have a bet you would pass the same civics test every immigrant has to pass in order to become a citizen of this country. You only value a country if you know something about that country, if you have a stake in that country. Thats how we have a nation of capital c citizens. Thats not going to fix what you went through. Its not. But its going to make sure kids who come after you dont have to go through the same thing that you did and that, you know what . Youre still able to be strengthened by that hardship, too. Because this may be an odd thing to say but in every hardship is still an opportunity. You will never be the same for that hardship but you may never be the same in ways that are good that made you stronger. Maybe you never had that experience of starting a nonprofit, gaining a leadership experience you never had as a teenager that ordinary teenagers would not have had. Maybe you will be the person leading that company years from now. Maybe you will be running for president of the United States and run the executive branch of government better than i did because you have a good sense to lead at what you picked up at a young age. Who knows what goodwill come of this, too. We have to be open to that possibility. Would we have gotten out of world war ii if f. D. R. Had never had polio and been in a wheelchair . I dont know. Does that mean we wish polio on everybody in this country . Of course it doesnt, no, it doesnt. As i said earlier, hardship is not a choice, victimhood is a choice. We choose victory. Thats the best definition of what it means to be a conservative. Hardship is not victimhood but helps us discover who we really are. As americans, as individuals. And if we embrace that attitude that nobody is going to stop us and nobody is going to stop you. Im proud of you. Thank for you asking that question. Keep sharing your story. Well take a couple more questions before we wrap this up. Take it here and then go to the back. Tell me your name, sir. My name is rocco castellano. Thank for you being here tonight. I dont think theres something you said nobody agreed with. I also started a nonprofit as well, i did it at 55 and you did it at 17 and you get more applause than i do, its great. I want to take you from a National Level to a local level. As you can tell tonight, year New Hampshire patriots and we take the first of the nation primary very seriously. We want to speak to all the candidates and we want to talk to the candidates and hear everything you have to say. Our first of the nation primary status is under attack because the Democratic Party decided to move that to South Carolina and decided to change their calendar. Were standing strong and no one tells us how to change our constitution in our state. What is your feeling on the state of New Hampshires primary status at this point . Thank you. Mr. Ramaswamy this is actually very personal to me. Ill tell you why. A guy like me has no chance at winning the presidency as an outsider, trump had no chance of winning the presidency as an outsider. If all 50 states vote at the same time. Its going to be the same little 30second ad made by the same group of consultants, flat plastic ads, whoever spends the most money wins but superpac puppets and may the best puppet win. Thats not what we want out of our process. We do it this way for a reason. Im a first in the nation primary status evangelist for New Hampshire. We will keep it that way. We have traditions in this country for a reason. I love you guys in New Hampshire, i do. Its not because i love you guys, its because i love this nation, actually. Its a special responsibility that you have that you take seriously. Its why you guys are here late into an evening on a hot night without air conditioning, fans turned off in an old theater that celebrates our nations history to vet a president ial candidate who is interviewing with you for a job. I view this as a Job Interview with you guys, actually. If you abandon that role the people who dont know how to do that interview and youre doing it instead, youll get what you pay for which is a lotten product on the other side of it. So i trust you. But our nation trusts you to tell the difference between somebody who comes in here and recite as poll tested slogan they were trained on two days before they came and somebody sharing their bone deep convictions. I think can you tell the difference. You have a sixth sense for it and developed it over the years of this country. Theres no social media algorithm between us. Its just news this hot room actually speaking to one another as citizens. This is how its supposed to work. And we have those traditions for a reason. Its easy to wake up on a given day and say ah, i think we can do it differently. Why not . Lets give it a try. Most traditions we have, we have for a reason, it had a purpose. And you cant just show up and say ill do it a little bit differently because i feel like it. Its popular. The shades of melon look a little different, whatever joe bidens justification was. We do it this way for a reason. We have a trained citizenry in this country. It happens to be a state where 400 people serve for a pittance while working other jobs because theres a civic culture in this country, in the state. A place thats not that far from where the American Revolution began. That means something. Were not just going to dismiss that out of hand. Were going to revive the purpose of those traditions in the first place, why we have them. And so in a very real way, im counting on you guys. Im depending on you. I cant do this. Im not supposed to do this. Theres no way. Somebody wrote this book up at the very beginning. People laughed me off in february when i got started and said why even bother. Youre 37 and never held experience in government, coming in as some outsider, why bother . First day of the campaign, first full day we were here in New Hampshire, we started in rochester and worked to manchester and i was here in concord. Im counting on you. You dont have to agree with 100 of what i say, you really dont. Over the course of the campaign, am i going to Say Something you disagree with . Sure. It will be something. Thats ok. You have to know im telling you what i believe 100 of the time. And if you believe that and agree with most of what i say, you share the same vision for the country i do. The same belief and conviction that we have to reunite this nation. Then im going to ask you for your help. Talk to your neighbors, talk to your fellow patriots, your citizens, for those of you who have access money, please donate to the campaign. I put in 15 million of my hard earned money precisely to avoid having to ask a lot of people of ringing a tin can with a hat asking for permission to run. I want to speak the truth. Give a dollar and if youd rather not, volunteer. Thats frankly more value if youre willing to donate your hand to our cause. For me its very personal and how well keep it that way. Well go to that gentleman in the back thats been waiting a long time. Thank you. Hi. So the u. S. President ial election of 2020 was unprecedented, as you may have noticed. It was the first time that the person who officially won did not win the state of florida and ohio. But 10 days of the election, joe bide be, to his credit, he got the most votes of any person in history. Can you believe that . No applause. Ok. Most votes of any person in history. After all these rules were changed, all seeming to be in specific counties where he was 800,000 trump was 800,000 votes ahead in georgia and then magically all these people worried about voting waited until not even the election but waited until after the election to send in a ballot and seemed very odd. So i guess my twopart question, what are your plans to secure the security and integrity of the election . And also, do you think on record, do you believe joe biden is a legitimately elected president and why is the answer no . Mr. Ramaswamy whats your name . Christian. Mr. Ramaswamy ill answer it in the spirit of one of the questions about National Unity. What you hear tuning in to msnbc on a given night, the question you just asked, thats a threat to our democracy. You are a threat to our democracy for even asking that question, daring to ask a question, questioning the legitimacy of an election result shame on you. Racist or whatever the case may go. Thats not the way we unite the country. Heres what i say. If thats really a grave concern about belief in the legitimacy of our elections and im willing to do a deal. Im going to ask all of you to come with me in my willingness and back me up in doing this deal because weve got to move forward as a country. One election day national holiday, voter i. D. Matched to the voter file, paper ballots. Thats it. But we have to so we get those things, if we get that much we have to keep that end of the bargain, National Unity. Get those four things, it should not be controversial, if its such a threat to our democracy, fine, do these four simple things. I for one will pledge to be done with talking about Election Integrity as an issue because we can agree in the result of the election. That moves us forward as a country. You wont hear another complaint from me if we just secure voter i. D. , same day voting, national holiday, matched to the voter file, paper ballots that can be verified. Its how we move a nation forward not by compromising but being unpromising about with simple pragmatic decision. But it was probably proven in the most proveable way was the hunter biden laptop story being suppressed, stolen by big tech, really. This is something no amount of the deal i just laid out is going to fix this, its going to take a different kind of action where large tech countries decided that a story on the eve of an election which most voters say would have changed their result nonetheless was systematically suppressed and you had your social media accounts locked even if you didnt share that story. This also is personal to me. I had my linkedin site locked. Im Holding Third in the country for u. S. President and i was saying it for a different reason which is linkedin locks my account in the middle of an election season for making statements grounded in truth about climate change, about climate possible and the e. S. G. Movement, that i violated their policies on hate speech misinformation and im not making this up, violence. I ask you to point out, where is this false . We have emails back and forth between our team and they couldnt come back with one. I published those emails and exchanges which at what point they get calls from reporters and microsoft says this is an error, your account was locked in error. Its since been restored. This is how we have to win. The battlefield is not even but its a Playing Field weve got. Its also why this election. Hear me out because its very important. This election must be a landslide apledge it cant be a 50. 1 determine the next morning two days later cnn, msnbc, who is calling it first, no, it cant be one of those. The 2024 president ial election must be a landslide election, akin to what Ronald Reagan delivered in 1980 and what im running to deliver in 2024, you want to talk about National Unity, thats the single greatest leap and is a requirement for National Unity to have unambiguous consensus around who wins this upcoming election and it has to be by a landslide moral mandate to shut down the Administrative State and shut down a failing economy and revive national pride. Honest to god i think there are other candidates in this race including donald trump who can beat joe biden in a fair election. People want me to say the answer is no but the biden election performed poorly and its a winnable election no matter who the g. O. P. Nomination is. I believe its the only candidate in this race who can and will deliver a landslide margin in this election. I can prove that to you. Were already seeing it in the data. There were 40,000 unique donors. Weve hit 70,000 unique donors already. I never had a political donor in my life, never had a donor list never had a list of followers to draw from and started with a standing start, 70,000 donors, 40 of them are First Time Ever donors to the g. O. P. Of any kind, the normal number is 2 . When we go to kensington, im already playing for the general election because its that important. It is just that important that this has to be a 1980 reagan revolution, quality the ramaswamy revolution, be my guest but it has to be a moral mandate in 2024 and gives me a sense of obligation. You know the differences between the 50. 1 and landslide election . Ill tell you what it is. Its young people, actual limit you going to be old enough to vote and turn 18 by then . Thank you. Ria is coming along with this, hopefully. In the general election its going to be that landslide we require and i think that puts us and paves our path towards reuniting a badly broken nation and i believe we can. It might be our last chance to actually do it. You keep that in mind and spread it to every one of your neighbors in this election when you take into account who youre voting for in the primary, it will make a difference whether or not we reunite this nation. Well take a couple more questions and wrap it up and hang on for further conversation. The gentleman to your right. Hey, candidate, how are you . Mr. Ramaswamy good to see you. Thanks for the young lady for limiting my pool of questions to the military, for covering education. So our borders are massive and our u. S. Military, our active duty strength is around 1. 3 million. Mr. Ramaswamy 700,000 reservists on top. With that the military is a big expense, a huge check that we write from the treasury, every month, every year. How are we going to go about securing the borders with the u. S. Military and is that going to require more funding or different funding to be able to accomplish it . Mr. Ramaswamy different funding. Possibly less. You think of the tens upon hundreds of thousands we have in japan and germany and other parts of the world, literally using 200 billion worth of u. S. Military resources in addition to direct Financial Aid to protect an invasion of somebody elses border halfway around the world when we have a invasion in our southern border its more costeffective to use those resources here at home. I think it is literally stationing members of our military spaced apart by spaces demarcated by half a mile each, do the math and it works in our favor and were talking about cartel financed tunnels and the u. S. Military can be on watch because it takes time to construct underneath the wall. Its a swiss cheese of a southern border. We can close the holes with the u. S. Military to do it. Personally constitutional legal footing. Im not talking about carrying out domestic Law Enforcement functions with the u. S. Military, cant do that. If its outward facing to protect against a foreign threat, which it is, its perfectly legal and morally and constitutional justified and what i intend to do as commander in chief quickly, talking march 31, 2025 and im paying attention to the mexican 2024 election that actually matters p. Amlo, the guy in there now is going to be out, thank god. And shineball leads him and following her statements she could be a reasonable leader and could say listen up, mexico, youll have to take care of your own country and well help you do it for a tiny fraction of what we spend, wasted in my opinion in places like ukraine, we can help you regain your sovereignty from the mexican drug cartels and drive drive through a combination of diplomacy while sealing our border combined with reducing incentives and no more dollars to sanctuary cities, not another dime of aid to mexico or nicaragua or guatemala or honduras until mexico in partnership with those countries fixed mexicos own southern border problem which is the source of most migrants that come south of mexico across our own. Keep in mind its responsible for the fentanyl deaths in the country, 200 people a day dying crossing our border. Theres a demand side to this problem and i dont shy away from that but its driven by chinese supply. Raw materials coming from you think im making this stuff up, im not, from wuhan of all places, the Synthetic Materials to make synthetic fentanyl south of our border and you ask why is it intentional but why are there 800 chem indianapoliss working with the drug cartels to then lace fentanyl . This isnt people, im choosing to take fentanyl. No, many dying of fentanyl including kids think theyre buying percocet on snap chat this isnt like old, well, people need to make better choices debate. They dont know what theyre getting. They thought theyre buying one thing and getting another because its laced with fentanyl. I want to share something but. I dont like fueling false fear or conspiracies, im just logically playing a possibility forward we have to wake our eyes up to. If its true what im telling you and it is that this is intentional on behalf of china to get the Raw Materials to make synthetic fentanyl to the drug cartels they lace percocet and other drugs with that kids are getting across snap chat as part of undermining the u. S. And then 90 of our pharmaceutical supply chain comes from places like china, its not impossible to imagine that the same source of a Global Pandemic that began in a Bioterrorism Lab in wuhan using fentanyl laced drugs to find their way across our southern border isnt at some point in this disaster that flies a spy balloon over our sovereign territory, our Sovereign Land will make the decision to do the same with our small molecule supply chain coming from china as well. I dont think its a far stretch. I dont have evidence theyre doing it yet. Thank god we havent seen it happen yet and dont want to get to the day it did. This is why our Economic Policy goes hand in glove with our National Security policy. The local part of it starts with sealing the local border with the u. S. Military. Thank for you that. Ill take one last question. We have to go . Got it. Im having too much fun. Heres what ill tell you. Its not too late. Wait one more election cycle. Its not too late for us to still do our part, to say that were still the country well tell our kids that that American Dream is possible, that that kid of immigrants that came to this country with no money that came on to fund several companies, thats not extraordinary but what is extraordinary is it is normal in the United States of america for that to happen every day. Im worried that American Dream will not be available to their kids and my two sons but for ria and l. J. And their generation well have the country no matter where you are or where your parents came from or what your skin color is, you can achieve anything you ever want in this country with your own hard work and your own commitment, your own dedication and that you know what, youre free to speak your mind at every step of the way and thats the American Dream and what were running to and how we will reunite this country and with your help we will make it happen in 2024, thank you all. God bless you. God bless your family and god bless our United States of america. Thank you. Thank you very much. I know a lot of you want to take your picture with this gentleman so ill have you line up to your left, my right and come up and take a picture with this gentleman who has a hard out in 15 minutes so get your cameras ready. Were rapid fire. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy visit ncicap. Org] good to see you. Your name again . Alexander. Good work. Means a lot to me. Talking to him on monday. Good work. Thank you. How are you doing . Thank you very much. Becky . Good to meet you. One, two, three. Thank you for your service. Ready . One, two, three. Nice to meet you. Thanks very much. Can you . Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. 1, 2, 3. Thank. Take care. 1, 2, 3. Thank you, maam. Thank you. I appreciate that. Tell him i said hello. Come on in, guys. Ready, everybody . 1, 2, 3. Thank you. How you doing, man . Thank you. New hampshire [indiscernible] down at the border right now. Were looking into that. Keep it up, man. Spread the message. 1, 2, 3. Thank you, guys. 1, 2, 3. [indiscernible] thank you, guys. Young people outfront. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. Thank you very much. 1, 2, 3. How are you doing . Good to meet you. 1, 2, 3. Thank you for your support. The unions arent even doing much for them. Good to see you guys. Thank you. Amazing, my man. Thank you. Spread the message. Bring the young people out for us. Spread the message. 1, 2, 3. Thank you for your service. 1, 2, 3. Thank you. Byebye. How are you . Congratulations. You keep it up. We will. Focus on me. Thank you very much. 1, 2, 3. Thank you, guys. 1, 2, 3. Thank you. We need you guys. Spread that message for us. 1, 2, 3. Thank you, guys. We appreciate you. Spread that for us. Thank you very much. Appreciate you. All best. 1, 2, 3. All right, ready . 1, 2, 3. Thank you. Good luck. 1, 2, 3. I will. Appreciate it. Keep up the energy. Good job. Appreciate it. 1, 2, 3. Sir. Thank you very much. Good to see you guys. 1, 2, 3. Thank you for sharing. It means a lot. Thank you so much. Good to see you. All right. 1, 2, 3. Thank you. All right, everybody. 1, 2, 3. Thank you so much. It means a lot to me. 1, 2, 3. You run on commonsense morality. I like that. Thank you. Thank you. Its really powerful. If we could get congress to vote. Will look into it. Thank you. Running, standing up for the things that you do. I loved the russian. Appreciate you. That question. Appreciate you. 1, 2, 3. Good to see you. Ready . 1, 2, 3. Good to see you. Where is lj . He went down there. Thats what i said. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Come on in, young man. All right, big guy. 1, 2, 3. Thank you. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more, including buckeye broadband. Buckeye broadband supports cspan as a public serce along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. This year, booktv celebrates 25 years of presenting nonfiction books and authors. Book tv is live with the library of Congress National book festival. Since 2001, booktv in partnership with the library of congress has provided signature, in depth, unfiltered coverage of the National Book festival, featuring hundreds of nonfiction authors. Watch friday as booktv once again brings you live, allday coverage of the National Book festival. See our complete National Book festival schedule online at booktv. Org. The library of Congress National book festival Live Saturday beginning at 9 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan2. Cspan now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington, live and ondemand. Keep up with the days big events with live streams of blood proceedings and hearings on congress, white house events, campaigns and more from the world of politics, all at your fingertips. You can also see the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for cspans tv networks and cspan radio, plus a variety of compelling podcasts. Cspan now is available at the apple store and google play. Download it free today. Cspan now for front row seat to washington, any time, anywhere. Here is what is coming up on cspan. Next, secretary of state Antony Blinken talks about Foreign Policy challenges facing the United States. Then former secretary of