Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy appeared in Des Moines, Iowa for a CNN town hall on Wednesday night and not only addressed a broad range of topics but also repeatedly clashed with CNN anchor Abby Phillip.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The most contentious moment of the hour-long town hall was when Phillip attempted to grill Ramaswamy over his recent comment referring to Jan. 6 as an \u2018inside job.\u2019<\/p>\n
As Ramaswamy accused the government of systemically lying in recent years and claimed that federal agents were within the crowd on Jan. 6, he mocked Phillip\u2019s interruptions as proof that \u2018the establishment doesn\u2019t approve this message.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I know it\u2019s very uncomfortable for you. I know this is an uncomfortable issue for many people but we have to do the truth here,\u2019 Ramaswamy told the CNN anchor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ramaswamy\u2019s comments were repeatedly welcomed with applause by the GOP-friendly audience as Phillip continued sparring with the White House hopeful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ramaswamy, the son of immigrants, laid out his hard-line immigration policies. He began by repeating his vow to send the military to secure the southern border but quickly pivoted to his proposal to \u2018ending the illegal incentives to be here.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018End birthright citizenship for the kids of illegal migrants to whom the 14th Amendment does not apply, end federal funding to sanctuary cities using our own taxpayer money to pay effectively for breaking the rule of law,\u2019 Ramaswamy said. \u2018I do believe that anybody who\u2019s in this country illegally needs to be returned to their country of origin. Not because they\u2019re all bad people. In fact, many of them are good people\u2026 So this is not a value judgment about those people. It\u2019s a value judgment about this country. We\u2019re founded on the rule of law. And as a father of two sons in the White House, I can\u2019t look them in the eye and tell them they have to follow the rules when our own government isn\u2019t following its own rules.\u2019<\/p>\n
The political outsider explained that he could implement such mass deportations by invoking an obscure law called 287 G he says allows local law enforcement to carry out warrants issued by ICE. He also clarified that ending birthright citizenship of illegal immigrants would take effect after he takes office rather than be retroactively applied to those already born in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ramaswamy was asked by an Iowa voter about how he\u2019d be able to balance an authentic approach on the world stage while maintaining a \u2018presidential demeanor.\u2019 He responded by saying he wants to act as president the way he wants his sons to view him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Am I going to tell my kids to go to school and be a bully? No, I\u2019m not. But I\u2019m gonna tell them if somebody bullies you or hits you, you\u2019re gonna hit them back ten times harder. And that\u2019s the way I\u2019m going to lead this country,\u2019 Ramaswamy said. \u2018As we say in our family- you have to be strong enough to protect your kindness. So if you watch those debates carefully, I don\u2019t engage in four-letter words. I mean, there are other candidates who have called me dumb, scum and worse that I\u2019m not going to repeat here. I didn\u2019t go after them but if they\u2019re gonna come after me, I\u2019m not going to be a president whether it\u2019s Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin or anybody else who\u2019s going to roll over. When I\u2019m leading the United States, the same rule applies. If you hit us, we hit you back ten times harder.\u2019<\/p>\n
The GOP hopeful was asked about his past support of dramatically increasing the inheritance tax, telling Phillip it\u2019s not part of his policy platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018What we need is a 12% flat tax across the board,\u2019 Ramaswamy said. \u2018Ordinary income, capital gain, corporate, flatten it out.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018And here is how we get money back for the system: end the croniest deductions, the deductions and the loopholes and the rebates that corporations, special interests have lobbied in. It\u2019s about $700 billion a year, just the tax compliance costs, just the out-of-pocket costs not counting the time you spend preparing your taxes. Give that back to the people,\u2019 he continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ramaswamy was quick to reject the premise of a question from a Drake University professor who asked how he would promote \u2018diversity and inclusion\u2019 and advance \u2018underrepresented groups\u2019 in his administration and in the private sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018So I think the Diversity Equity Inclusion agenda has been abused. In the name of diversity, we have at many of our universities totally sacrificed diversity of thought,\u2019 he said. \u2018In the name of equity, we\u2019ve perpetuated a lot of inequity and inequality of opportunity through affirmative action and otherwise. In the name of inclusion, we\u2019ve created a new culture of exclusion where certain points of view aren\u2019t welcome. So especially in a university setting, what do I care about? Diversity of viewpoint. This is important, actually, I think diversity of viewpoint is part of what this country was built on. Well, the best way to foster diversity of viewpoint is to screen candidates for the diversity of their views.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
He later continued, \u2018And I think the use of these racial and gender quota systems, I think, have actually created a new form of racism in the United States that otherwise would not have existed. It\u2019s sad to me, I mean, I\u2019ve hired, not because I was thinking about it consciously, plenty of Black women in different positions of authority in this campaign or other companies or whatever. And I can tell you it saddens me when people look at somebody who I hired on the basis of merit and say that they only got that job because of the race or gender. That doesn\u2019t do anybody a favor. And so I think if we restore true meritocracy in this country, and embrace true diversity of thought, chances are we\u2019re actually going to have a bunch of different shades of melanin and a range of genders in different positions. But let it be not the goal. Let it just be a byproduct of actually selecting for people who are the best person for the job, and especially in a university setting, diverse viewpoints as well. That\u2019s what I think.\u2019<\/p>\n
Ramaswamy rejected the notion that his Hindu faith contradicts the values established by the Founding Fathers, telling an Iowan voter \u2018we share the same value set in common\u2019 before listing several of his values that overlap with Judeo-Christian ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Would I be the best president to spread Christianity through this country? I would not. I\u2019d be not the best choice for that. But I also don\u2019t think that that\u2019s the job of the US President,\u2019 Ramaswamy said. \u2018But will I stand for the Judeo-Christian values that this nation was founded on ,that I was raised in even in the Hindu faith? Yes, I will. You\u2019re darn right I will.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I think it\u2019s my responsibility to make faith, and patriotism, and family, and hard work cool again in this country,\u2019 he later continued. \u2018I think they\u2019re pretty cool. And I think that\u2019s my job. As your next president, to back to the First Amendment, we will stand for religious liberty in a way that neither Republicans nor Democrats actually have. That\u2019s what the First Amendment says. You get to practice your faith. Every pastor in this country gets to do his job without the government getting in their way.\u2019<\/p>\n\n
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy appeared in Des Moines, Iowa for a CNN town hall on Wednesday night and not only addressed a broad range of topics but also repeatedly clashed with CNN anchor Abby Phillip.\u00a0 Ramaswamy battles CNN\u2019s Abby Phillip over Jan. 6 The most contentious moment of the hour-long town hall was when <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}