00:00:39.000He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
00:00:45.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:01:16.000I want to just dive right into the Israel situation.
00:01:19.000How should we think about what happened in Israel from America First perspective, not from the traditional neoconservative perspective, still having the back of our ally in the region?
00:01:30.000Vivek, how should we think about this?
00:01:33.000I mean, the way I think about it, Charlie, is that these were barbaric attacks.
00:01:36.000They were medieval, inhumane attacks, and it was wrong.
00:01:40.000And Israel absolutely has the right to defend its own homeland to the fullest extent necessary.
00:01:47.000And I think the job of the U.S. as an ally is to support Israel diplomatically, to support Israel with the necessary munitions needed to do that.
00:01:56.000We store some of those munitions in Israel.
00:01:59.000Intelligence sharing against the U.N., which has a habitual response almost always to draw false equivalents between Israel and the terrorists and enemies who target Israel.
00:02:09.000That's where the U.S. should be leading.
00:02:12.000But while keeping a clear-headed and cool-headed response that avoids an all-out war, a regional war in the Middle East that enmeshes the U.S. in it, that does not advance U.S. interests.
00:02:33.000And as an ally of Israel, the United States is affected by that too.
00:02:37.000But we can't make the same mistakes that we have in the face of past catastrophes, say 9-11 or otherwise, in entering prolonged regional conflicts in the Middle East.
00:02:47.000And so we have to do both of those things at once.
00:02:50.000Have Israel's back so that they can defend their own homeland while being rational and avoid getting yanked into a broader regional conflict.
00:02:59.000And I have some very clear and specific ideas of how to do it.
00:03:03.000I am disappointed in other Republican presidential candidates, like the likes of Nikki Haley, who have been hysterically shouting things like finish them that are entirely incoherent, calling this an attack on America.
00:03:16.000It was a bad attack on Israel, but that is still not an attack on America.
00:04:15.000If you're a country or a company or whatever and you have $6 billion coming in, yes, even if that's restricted in its use, that $6 billion that you would have spent on humanitarian purposes, that you can spend from a different hand supporting terrorist groups like Hamas or Hezbollah.
00:04:31.000So that's a lie, and Iran is a problem.
00:04:34.000I think our top objective with respect to Iran has to be making sure that they completely fully phase out any nuclear capabilities.
00:04:43.000The Biden administration has been a disaster.
00:04:45.000I think that we should absolutely apply the full financial force to make sure that Iran is weakened.
00:04:51.000But at the same time, Charlie, and no one else is talking about this, I think it is boneheaded U.S. policy by the Biden administration, with the aiding and abetting of some Republicans, to engage in a serious discussion with Saudi Arabia about becoming nuclear equipped in the region as well.
00:05:08.000And so I think nuclear nonproliferation throughout those countries, the Arab and Shia countries in the Middle East, I think is a top priority.
00:05:16.000Iran cannot be nuclear equipped, but we're not helping ourselves when we're having that same discussion about nuclear technology transfer to Saudi Arabia.
00:05:24.000And I think it is remarkable, Charlie, that I'm the only Republican that actually has the spine to bring up that issue, but that is part and parcel of what a rational U.S. strategy here has to be.
00:05:36.000And we can't be dancing around eggshells.
00:05:39.000This is an important time to both support Israel while also be really clear-headed about we're at risk of seeing a major all-out regional war in the Middle East that does not advance U.S. interests.
00:05:51.000And a true U.S. leader, a true America first leader, would avoid that outcome while still standing for our friends in Israel.
00:06:41.000They were not going for military targets.
00:06:44.000And I think this is the really important thing we must emphasize, that it would be bad if, okay, they attack a military base, they're at war.
00:06:51.000They bypassed other military targets to go for civilians.
00:07:14.000And Israel needs to decide what its response is going to be.
00:07:17.000That decision belongs to Israel, and it's up to us in the U.S. to respect that decision and to support them as they defend their national self-existence, as they rightly have the right to do for their homeland.
00:07:32.000But I think one of the lessons to learn is that we made disastrous responses in this country to our 9-11 in this country.
00:07:40.000And I don't want to see Israel make those same mistakes, but more importantly, I don't want to see the U.S. make those same mistakes.
00:07:45.000We went 25 years of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, sacrificing $3 trillion of taxpayer money, more importantly, thousands upon thousands of innocent American lives to what end?
00:07:58.000The Taliban still in charge in Afghanistan, still a hostile anti-American regime in Iraq, vulnerable to Iranian incursion.
00:08:05.000So we cannot repeat those same mistakes of the past while still making sure we act with fortitude to allow Israel to defend its own homeland as they deserve to.
00:08:16.000And that's the kind of clear-headed leadership we need.
00:08:18.000And the reason I'm being vocal about this now, Charlie, is that the rest of the Republican field has lost their minds on this issue.
00:08:25.000I mean, I haven't heard where Trump is on it, but I'm talking about the other people who are on that debate stage.
00:08:30.000I mean, the Nikki Haleys and the Mike Pence's, the Tim Scotts.
00:08:34.000This is heading in an irresponsible direction.
00:08:36.000I'm even seeing Ron DeSantis using a bullhorn, making a George Bush-like 9-11 recreation that I don't think really fell anything other than flat.
00:08:57.000So I want to keep talking about this because how we respond as Americans is very, very important.
00:09:04.000And, you know, Lindsey Graham is going out there, I think, rather irresponsibly saying we might have to go have American jets go bomb Iranian refineries.
00:09:16.000So the Pentagon right now, quote, does not rule out troops on the ground to rescue American citizens in Gaza.
00:09:22.000Now, I could potentially see an argument for that, but my gut instinct, Vivek, 45 seconds, is I don't trust these people to not have that potentially barrel into a bigger story.
00:09:41.000And part of America first is no American left behind.
00:09:45.000So I think there is a reasonable discussion, Charlie, to see how we prioritize getting American hostages out of that situation.
00:09:52.000But that's a separate point from a broader regional conflict in the Middle East.
00:09:57.000And I think that we should be really clear-headed, whatever our responses.
00:10:01.000The limiting principle here should be: we're not going to see the U.S. enmeshed in some other ground troop conflict in the Middle East with Iran or otherwise.
00:10:10.000And I think it is beyond insane that we're actively discussing, for example, nuclear technology transfer to Saudi Arabia.
00:10:16.000The other principle needs to be nuclear nonproliferation across the board, Iran, Saudi Arabia, full stop, while still supporting Israel's ability to defend its own homeland.
00:10:27.000That's what real leadership means here.
00:10:30.000Are you prepared for the unthinkable ahead?
00:11:51.000Because when they did this, when they did this surprise attack, when they took these hostages, when they murdered these families, they were celebrating.
00:12:24.000I think that was an irresponsible response from somebody who touts her own foreign policy experience.
00:12:31.000When I say Nikki Haley does have foreign policy experience, and it shows, among other things, in her bank account, that's a separate point for another day.
00:12:38.000I do not think that somebody who profits from war as a military contractor or otherwise should be able to get anywhere near the White House.
00:12:45.000But put that to one side, she's representative of a broader wing of the Republican Party, the Lindsey Graham, John Bolton, Chris Christie, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley wing of the party that is trying to bring back an era, a bygone era for now, of disastrous U.S.-Middle Eastern engagement, almost as though they're salivating over the opportunity to go to war again.
00:13:06.000This was a disastrous attack on Israel.
00:13:09.000It was the equivalent of Israel's 9-11.
00:14:21.000Stay out of broader, unmeasured conflict in the Middle East, while still enabling Israel to defend itself as it has the right to do with diplomatic support, munitions support where necessary, and also, frankly, intelligence sharing.
00:14:37.000Another question, Charlie, and this is really important.
00:14:39.000Everybody else in the existing establishment says this is a question for later.
00:14:43.000I want to know what the hell went wrong with U.S. and Israeli intelligence and with Israeli defense.
00:14:50.000When there's an airplane that crashes, they don't let the same airliner that crashed the plane analyze the black box.
00:15:00.000How this was able to happen in an era of what should have been heightened security, approaching the 50-year anniversary right around it of the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
00:15:11.000And until we get that answer, we're at risk of making some of those same mistakes at an even larger scale as the likes of Nikki Haley beat the drums to war, almost rooting for it in the Middle East.
00:15:23.000To say we need a cool-headed, rational-level response, supporting Israel's ability to defend its own homeland because that's the right thing to do.
00:15:32.000And Israel fully has the right to defend its national self-existence.
00:15:36.000And we stand with them and against anybody else who will argue against that.
00:15:40.000but at the same time, diplomatically with sanity, avoiding that broader regional U.S. enmeshed conflict in the Middle East.
00:15:48.000We've seen that movie before and we don't want to see it again.
00:15:51.000I want to explore something with you that I don't think has been covered.
00:15:54.000Number one, we are told, this is a wrinkle that has not been covered by Steve Schmidt and other people that January 6th was 9-11.
00:16:18.000But number two, Vivek, we have this massive leviathan, this federal Bureau of Investigation that has a whole category for MAGA that is spying on conservatives.
00:16:29.000I am not confident, Vivek, that our government is currently monitoring the sleeper cells that are in this country to potentially prevent an attack on the homeland.
00:16:41.000We have a wide open southern border, and it seems as if, according to the government's own sworn congressional testimony, they say domestic, violent, right-wing extremism is the greatest threat.
00:16:55.000Balance of Nature, changing the world one life at a time.
00:19:05.000Vivek, do you have confidence in our federal government to preempt a sleeper cell activation event here if the Middle East goes into a kinetic regional conflict?
00:19:17.000There is no basis to have that confidence.
00:19:20.000So Charlie, when I've talked about my plan, for example, to shut down the FBI, and I stand by it, and people will use this as an occasion to say, oh, no, that's a crazy plan.
00:19:29.000No, it's actually doing two things at once.
00:19:32.000First is we're taking aim at the corruption that begins in that rot of the failed Bureau of Investigation that is the modern J. Edgar Hoover FBI.
00:19:40.000Still the J. Edgar Hoover building that people walk into.
00:19:44.000By the way, the same one that tried to target Martin Luther King with suicide over improperly collected tapes is now targeting conservatives and what they call MAGA extremists as terrorists.
00:20:03.00035,000 employees at the FBI, 20,000 of them are back office bureaucrats.
00:20:09.000We will send them home to find honest work in the private sector as they should.
00:20:13.000But 15,000 of them, Charlie, are agents on the front lines, good people that are being used poorly.
00:20:19.000They're not doing as good of a job as the U.S. Marshals on sex trafficking from kids and otherwise, or on drug enforcement, or on financial crimes.
00:20:26.000So we will move them to the U.S. Marshals or to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network or to the Secret Service or otherwise, other parts, the DEA, that have had far greater specialization.
00:20:37.000And the FBI we have right now is purposefully asleep at the switch when they have had the same people doing counterterrorism now that were doing financial crimes or fraud before and vice versa.
00:20:48.000They completely lack even the competence, let alone the specialization, to get that job done.
00:20:54.000And so when a guy like me comes in and says we're going to shut down the FBI but move the 15,000 good people on the front lines, not only is that going to reduce corruption and cost and waste and bureaucracy, it will also increase the effectiveness of being able to actually see the real enemies are anti-Americans in the United States who want to harm the United States, not America-loving patriots who happen to be political enemies of the current administration, which is what we see today.
00:21:29.000To stand up against the poison of white supremacy, as I did my inaugural address to single out as the most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy.
00:21:48.000And I'm not saying this because I'm not a black HBCU.
00:21:56.000I didn't know there were non-black HBCUs.
00:21:58.000But anyway, let's also play Cut 59 and contrast what Joe Biden says with Cut 59.
00:22:03.000I'll tell you for over two years now, Border Patrol agents have been telling us they've got extreme concerns about who is crossing our southern border, primarily because so many agents have been pulled off the front lines to instead focus on processing.
00:22:16.000And that then leaves gaps in our border where we simply have nobody out on patrol.
00:22:22.000We'll start with the terror watch list numbers.
00:22:24.000Fiscal year 2023, so far, 151 people on the FBI's terror watch list have been arrested by Border Patrol agents while they were crossing illegally here at our southern border.
00:22:41.000An open border is a direct threat to the homeland.
00:22:46.000It is not too far of a grasp to say that there could be hundreds, if not thousands, of, let's just say, Hamas-sympathizing sleeper cells here in the homeland.
00:23:00.000I mean, Charlie, I went to the northern border, somewhere where the other candidates haven't really gone, but I think we need to pay attention to it.
00:23:29.000So one of the things that I think we need to do in response to this attack on Israel is wake up and say that if this can happen in Israel with the level of security and intelligence they have over there, it can absolutely happen right here at home.
00:23:43.000This ought to be our wake-up call to protect our own homeland, not just sealing the southern border and the northern border with our own military, which obviously is a basic, low-hanging fruit step we obviously have to take, and that's solvable.
00:23:56.000But we have to now deal with the problem that we have within the country already.
00:23:59.000So I think any resident alien who has in any way been affiliated with Hamas or similar jihadist networks in the Middle East need to be deported out of this country immediately.
00:24:10.000And some of them, if they're affiliated with Hamas, extradited to Israel, where they deserve justice in Israel in light of what's happened here as well.
00:24:17.000That's the kind of leadership that we need, targeted, precise, rather than the deflection tool.
00:24:22.000It's the consistent tool, Charlie, the woke smoke to deflect accountability.
00:24:26.000That's what you see from the Biden administration.
00:24:28.000So I'm going to risk sounding insensitive here, but people know where I come from because I'm a very outspoken pro-Israel person.
00:24:35.000But Vivek, what does bother me is that some candidates get more fired up about what happens abroad than here domestically.
00:24:43.000And I would not lump you into that category, nor Donald Trump.
00:24:47.000But you know that Nikki Haley tape or Mike Pence, there seems to be a decibel level that is reached sometimes for the foreign and not the immediate.
00:24:55.000And I'm not saying this does not, this does not justify outrage.
00:25:29.000And so let's take the Ukraine conflict.
00:25:31.000I mean, both these are around the perimeter of Russia.
00:25:33.000On one hand, they claim it's good versus evil, which I reject.
00:25:37.000Ukraine is not in any sense good just because Russia is bad.
00:25:40.000But then you hear pin drop silence, Charlie, on what Azerbaijan is doing to those Armenians.
00:25:46.000It's the exact same situation on the same facts, but you don't hear a peep.
00:25:49.000Now, the reason why there is both Ukraine and Azerbaijan have very powerful, well-connected, well-funded lobbies in the United States, in Washington, D.C., and it's a special interest game.
00:26:01.000And the same people who are the puppet masters of D.C. politicians are the puppet masters of candidates like Nikki Haley or Mike Pence or otherwise.
00:26:21.000We have to call that out for what it is and support Israel to defend its own national identity, but without using that as an excuse to enter broader regional conflict in the Middle East.
00:26:32.000And it is part of this broader self-loathing when I don't see anybody else getting on a bullhorn for the 80,000 people that are dying of fentanyl overdoses or the crimes that are committed by people who illegally cross the border.
00:26:42.000Get me the bullhorn for that rather than the theatrics and the histrionics we see from the rest of the Republican Party, which I think is shameful.
00:26:50.000And I think the future of the Republican Party ought to be unapologetically America first.
00:26:54.000They're making one last charge to try to stop that from happening.
00:26:58.000That's the real divide in today's Republican Party.
00:27:01.000But I think we need to bury the neocon philosophy back where it belongs and go back to putting the interests of this country first.
00:27:08.000Yes, that does include supporting in the correct and focused ways our allies like Israel, but putting this country first without getting drawn into conflicts that do not advance our national interests.
00:27:20.000Okay, so I completely and totally agree.
00:27:24.000And I want to go to another layer here, which I think is important and it's related.
00:27:29.000So, you know, we need to look at solving this long term.
00:27:37.000If President of the United States, you're a unique problem solver and entrepreneur, two-state solution, three-state solution.
00:27:43.000Some people talk about a one-state solution, which is very bold.
00:27:48.000How do we macro, is this solvable or is this just you're going to have to live with it?
00:27:53.000That you're going to have to live with conflict, you're going to have to live with disputes, you just have to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
00:28:00.000And I think that's important, Vivek, because one of my fears is that Israel in the pursuit of justice will pursue revenge more than justice.
00:28:12.000And I do not want to see this turn into a regional war.
00:28:15.000I do want them to obviously defend themselves and take out Hamas.
00:28:19.000But what does success look like in a Ramaswamy administration geopolitically?
00:28:26.000So the right answer for Israel should be determined by Israel.
00:28:30.000And I think that's a very important first principle.
00:28:33.000They have tough decisions to make for themselves.
00:28:36.000Are they going to take responsibility for Gazans, which historically Israel has been very reluctant to do or not?
00:28:42.000These are tough decisions that belong to Israel.
00:28:44.000And it is our job to respect the decisions that Israel makes, but making sure that we don't get accidentally mired with U.S. troops on the ground or otherwise in involvement in a broader regional conflict that does not belong to us.
00:29:01.000Israel should pursue Israel first, and we have their back as they do it diplomatically and in terms of intelligence sharing and limited necessary munitions support in this narrow conflict.
00:29:12.000While it's our job to look after America first principles.
00:29:15.000Now, as a U.S. leader, if I'm on the phone with Bibi, I would share with him the learnings, the bad learnings that we have in the United States when we had our 9-11.
00:29:25.000We got mired in Iraq and Afghanistan, 3 trillion, thousands of lives, that we now regret.
00:29:31.000So good friends, share those learnings with each other.
00:29:33.000But that's going to be Israel's decision to make what it does for its homeland.
00:29:37.000But the U.S. decision needs to be we are going to prioritize avoiding a broader regional conflict and war in the Middle East that does not advance U.S. interests.
00:29:47.000I think Iran, we need to make sure that they have full slate no nuclear capabilities.
00:29:52.000But that is also why it is insane for the Biden administration to be engaging in talks with one of the most oil-rich nations in the world, Saudi Arabia, about nuclear technology transfer.
00:30:05.000And I think that those are the kinds of mistakes that we're actively making as we speak that most in the Republican Party are somehow walking on eggshells and afraid to call out, that it will take a true America first leader to actually state out loud to keep us out of a broader Middle Eastern war while standing for our friends in Israel and then apply those principles in places like Russia, Ukraine, negotiate peace there.
00:30:27.000Another place where we have a President Biden that's sleepwalking us into major conflict that doesn't advance U.S. interests.
00:30:33.000Now these become cumulative and we're really depleting our own ability to protect our own homeland, which I'm sorry to say this cynically, Charlie, for some people in the United States might even not only be an accident, it might be the goal itself.
00:30:47.000And I'm not going to let that happen on my watch.
00:30:51.000We have one more segment together, but I want to make sure our audience is aware how to support you, how to get behind your grassroots campaign.
00:31:50.000That is mypillow.com, promo code Kirk, including the MyPillow 2.0 mattress topper, my pillow kitchen towel sets, and so much more.
00:31:58.000Call 800-875-0425 or go to mypillow.com, use promo code Kirk, mypillow.com, promo code Kirk.
00:32:07.000Vivek, in foreign policy, prudence is the most important thing, to not compare everything as if everything is alike.
00:32:14.000I think of the Russia-Ukraine situation in a completely different, not completely different, but a categorically different box than the Israel-Hamas situation.
00:32:24.000Everything is not a nail, and we're not a hammer looking for a nail, right?
00:32:28.000So you have to look at things through using prudence and practical judgment.
00:32:32.000This is a classical trait that the Greeks talked about a lot, which is you can't fit everything into a prearranged box.
00:32:51.000Israel is an ally and matters to the U.S. Taiwan matters for practical reasons to the U.S. in terms of semiconductors in a way that Ukraine just does not.
00:33:01.000And in the Ukraine conflict, just because Putin is bad does not mean that Ukraine is good.
00:33:06.000This is a country that has banned 11 opposition parties, consolidated all TV media into one state media arm, celebrated a Nazi in its own ranks, Zelensky did, holding the U.S. hostage for more money over holding its own elections.
00:33:19.000And by the way, the regions of the Donbass, Luhans, and Donetsk that are occupied now, these are Russian-speaking regions where most of the people don't view themselves as part of Ukraine and haven't been represented in the Ukrainian parliament for more than a decade.
00:33:32.000And it is pathetic that most people will not have heard of those facts from the mainstream media as it exists today.
00:33:37.000So we have to reasonably ask in Ukraine, what is a reasonable path to peace?
00:33:42.000Because this war does not advance American interests.
00:33:45.000I've laid out a very clear plan to get there, one that will allow Ukraine to come out with its own sovereignty intact.
00:33:51.000But it's like what you said, Charlie, it's not about analogizing, it's about analyzing each situation in a rational, cool-headed way about how we advance American interests.
00:34:02.000And so it's not some blanket, one-size-fits-all for the neocon group, it's go to war.
00:34:07.000But it's not like there's an opposite camp where we should make the same mistake of having one blanket solution.
00:34:11.000We need a commander-in-chief who can analyze each situation, do it in a rational way without corrupting special interests or influences, and say, how do we engage in a way that, yes, advances U.S. interests, not just for the short run, but over the long run, sure, but still exclusively advances U.S. interests.
00:34:30.000And that's different in Taiwan from Ukraine, from Azerbaijan to Armenia, to Israel and Hamas.
00:34:35.000And that's the kind of leadership we haven't had for a long time.
00:34:39.000I think it's going to take an outsider, Charlie, and if I may say it, an outsider from a different generation, to start with a clean blank slate to see it with clear eyes.
00:34:49.000That's what I see missing in today's GOP.
00:34:51.000I am disappointed with the other people who have populated and permeated that debate stage with the same old neocon, one-size-fits-all pro-war solutions.
00:35:00.000Shamefully, with some of those people like Nikki Haley, even set up to make money off of going to war even more.
00:35:08.000Let this not be the Karl Rove, John Bolton, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Mike Pence wing of the party that governs anymore.
00:35:15.000We need a future that, yes, puts America first, but we're going to do it thoughtfully.
00:35:19.000Not making their mistake of the one-size blanket fitting all, but situation by situation, asking that question guided by actual facts on the ground, not a one-size-fits-all approach.
00:35:31.000Vivek, in closing here, I want you just to kind of summarize all this.
00:35:35.000And I just want to say, look, Vivek, you running for president.
00:35:57.000And I want our audience to understand the perspective of millennial, you know, late Gen Z. We've known nothing but no-win wars and quagmires.
00:36:05.000And I think that that opinion needs a seat at the table with the moral clarity you've delivered.
00:36:17.000Years later, they're worse off, but those countries are not any better served with the Taliban still in charge, with a hostile anti-American regime in Iraq.
00:36:26.000And by the way, it's a generation, Charlie, that's been sold one myth after another, that you go to four-year college degrees, earn that college debt, somehow get a start in the American dream.
00:36:35.000Many of those same people haven't repaid their college student loan debts.
00:36:38.000And so I understand why young people, our generation, does not trust the government.
00:36:43.000It's because the government doesn't trust us back with the truth.
00:36:47.000And I do think it's going to take a new generation of leadership to speak the truth, to say that, you know what, we made those mistakes.
00:36:55.000Nobody in the neocon establishment has come out and said it.
00:36:58.000I would forgive somebody for doing it, to come back and say, hey, we made those mistakes.
00:37:10.000What we're seeing now is a doubling down to make the same mistakes again, and that's not going to happen on my watch.
00:37:14.000Vivek Ramaswamy, I am enthusiastically behind you running for the presidency in the sense of moving the Overton window and representing our generation.