Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy participated in a town hall Wednesday in Iowa, just over a month from the state’s Republican caucuses on Jan. 15.
Ramaswamy took questions from Iowa voters as part of a CNN town hall, touching on various topics, including his young age, former President Donald Trump, and immigration.
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Ramaswamy began by addressing his similarities to Trump, using his age as a strength. He compared himself to Thomas Jefferson,
He then addressed immigration, saying that he would use the military to secure the border, cut off all aid to Central American countries that allowed illegal immigrants through toward the United States, and end incentives for illegal immigrants.
Taking a step ahead of the other candidates, aside from Trump, Ramaswamy called for the deportation of all illegal immigrants.
“I do believe that anybody who is in this country illegally needs to be returned to their country of origin,” he declared. “Not because they are all bad. Many of them are good people.”
Ramaswamy then advocated using local law enforcement to detain and deport illegal immigrants.
“Then there’s the question of how. This was the part many Republicans skip,” he said. “There’s 6,000 or so ICE agents. There’s a provision in the law — we don’t need new laws; it’s an existing law. It allows you to actually serve — an ICE agent to allow local law enforcement to serve warrants. That’s a million law enforcement officers. We can get that done. Again, all it takes is a president with a spine. If I swear an oath to the Constitution, I intend to keep it. That’s how I’m going to lead this country. I think that’s how we solve not only the border crisis but the abandonment of the rule of law in this country. That’s how I expect to lead.”
The political newcomer then addressed his stance on the War in Ukraine, which differs from most of his opponents. He reinforced his call for a “reasonable end to the Ukraine war,” which he believes includes a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I don’t think [the war is] advancing our interests,” he said. “We’re spending $200 billion of our taxpayer money that would be better used to defend our border. Even worse, I believe it’s increasing the risk of World War III. It’s driving Russia further into China’s hands. I proposed a reasonable deal that would allow Ukraine to come out with sovereignty intact. Yes, with some territorial concessions of the Russian-speaking regions in eastern Ukraine.”
He compared the move to President Richard Nixon’s approach to China during the Cold War, when he warmed relations in order to drive them away from the Soviet Union.
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“Do I trust Vladimir Putin? Of course not. He is a dictator? Absolutely. We will trust him to follow his self-interest just as he will trust us to follow ours,” he said. “Nixon did this in 1972. He pulled Mao out of the USSR. That was an alliance back then. Did we trust Mao? Of course we didn’t. There were kinks in the armor then. There are kinks in the armor now.”
“It’s going to take a visionary leader who will say we will use the Ukraine war as an opportunity to say to Russia, we will reopen some economic relations with Russia as Nixon did,” Ramaswamy continued. “But we will require no more joint military exercises, no more military sales between Russia and China. Weaken that alliance. Reduce the risk of World War III.”
