Vivek Ramaswamy on Des Moines Register's Political Soapbox 8.12.23
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00:00 I appreciate it.
00:01 It's good to see you guys.
00:03 It's great to be here.
00:06 So look, one of the reasons I love Iowa, and we have to keep the First in the Nation caucus
00:12 status intact, is this.
00:15 There are no social media algorithms in the air between us, right?
00:19 There's no TV screens.
00:21 It's us here in the open, having a conversation.
00:23 So I'm going to kick this off and then I want to hear from you.
00:26 What we've got to do is close the gap between what people are saying in public and what
00:32 people are willing to say in private.
00:35 Close that gap.
00:36 The only way we're going to do it is to speak openly.
00:40 So let me tell you, speak the truth.
00:42 That's right.
00:43 We can handle the truth.
00:45 That is who we are.
00:46 Tell you a bit about myself.
00:47 I'm seeing a lot of new faces today.
00:50 My parents came to this country 40 years ago with literally no money.
00:55 I've gone on to found multi-billion dollar companies.
00:59 I did it while marrying my lovely wife, Apoorva, who's here today.
01:05 The real, a real doctor, that's right.
01:08 I know the connotation you meant, but she is a real doctor.
01:12 Our kids are somewhere on that Ferris wheel.
01:16 And that's the American dream.
01:18 I am genuinely worried that our two sons will not be able to live that same American
01:26 dream unless we do something about it.
01:29 We're in the middle of a national identity crisis.
01:33 Faith, patriotism, hard work, family.
01:40 These things have disappeared, only to be replaced by poison.
01:46 You can debate what the poison is.
01:49 Wokeism, gender ideology, climatism, COVIDism, depression, anxiety, fentanyl, suicide.
02:00 It is not a coincidence that we see the rise of these same poisons at the same time.
02:06 These are symptoms of a deeper void of identity and purpose and meaning.
02:13 And I'm speaking to you as a member of my generation.
02:17 I'm 38 years old.
02:19 I am the youngest person ever to run for US president in a major party.
02:27 And I love seeing young people here.
02:30 Here's the thing about us.
02:32 I think it's true of all of us.
02:35 We are hungry for a cause.
02:38 We are starved for purpose and meaning and identity at a time when the things that used
02:45 to fill that void, they've disappeared.
02:47 So this is our moment, guys.
02:50 And not just as conservatives, as Americans, to step up and fill that void with a vision
02:56 of what it means to be an American today.
03:00 What does it mean to be American?
03:01 It means we believe in the ideals of the American Revolution.
03:06 It means we believe in 1776.
03:09 Means we believe in ideals like meritocracy and the pursuit of excellence, that you get
03:15 ahead in this country not on the color of your skin, but on the content of your character
03:21 and your contributions.
03:23 That is why we're done with affirmative action in America.
03:27 It has been a cancer on our national soul.
03:30 It means we believe in the rule of law, that people like my parents, people like Swallow,
03:38 who has been coming to our events – there you are, Swallow – who came to this country
03:42 legally as patriots through the front door get to come to this country legally.
03:47 But it also means that your first act of entering this country cannot break the law.
03:53 That is why we will use the U.S. military to secure that southern border.
03:58 That is what it means to stand for the rule of law.
04:04 It means that the people who we elect to run the government ought to be the ones who actually
04:11 run the government, not the deep state managerial bureaucracy that runs the show today.
04:18 So if I can't be your next president for more than eight years, that's great.
04:22 I don't want to do it for more than eight years.
04:23 That's a good thing.
04:25 But neither should any of those federal bureaucrats reporting into me either.
04:30 That is how you actually drain the swamp.
04:33 Take those government agencies that should not exist, from the FBI to the IRS to the
04:40 CDC to the ATF to the Department of Education.
04:46 We will get in there and shut it down.
04:51 That is how we revive the integrity of a constitutional republic.
04:57 I'll tell you something about me, all right?
04:59 You are not going to see me here bashing the other good people who are running in this
05:05 race.
05:06 These are our colleagues.
05:07 I'm going to depend on each of them just as I depend on you to revive this country.
05:14 But we do face a choice in this primary.
05:19 The choice is this.
05:22 Do you want incremental reform or do you want revolution?
05:30 I stand on the side of revolution.
05:33 I stand on the side of the American revolution, that we the people create a government that
05:39 is accountable to us, not the other way around.
05:42 That we the people require a government that tells us the truth, the truth about where
05:48 COVID-19 came from, the truth about that Hunter Biden laptop, the truth about vaccine
05:55 mandates, school closures, the truth about the Nashville shooter manifesto, the truth
06:00 about what's happening in our country today.
06:03 That is what this campaign is about.
06:06 We stand for the truth.
06:09 I speak that truth without apology.
06:14 God is real.
06:16 There are two genders.
06:19 Fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity.
06:24 Reverse racism is racism.
06:27 An open border is not a border.
06:31 Parents determine the education of their children.
06:35 The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.
06:41 Capitalism lifts us up from poverty.
06:45 There are three branches of government, not four.
06:50 And the US Constitution, it is the strongest guarantor of freedom in human history.
06:58 That is the truth.
06:59 We stand up for the truth.
07:02 We fight for the truth.
07:04 And I'll say this in closing before we open this up, all right, for questions.
07:10 I grew up into a generation where we were taught to celebrate our diversity and our
07:18 differences so much that we forgot all of the ways that we are all just the same as
07:31 Americans, bound by a common set of ideals that set this country into motion in 1776.
07:39 I believe it deep in my bones that those ideals still exist.
07:45 I need your help to revive them.
07:49 E pluribus unum.
07:53 From many, one.
07:58 That is the dream that won us the American Revolution.
08:03 That is the dream that reunited us after the Civil War.
08:06 That is the dream that won us two World Wars and the Cold War.
08:11 That is the dream that still gives hope to the free world today.
08:15 And if we can revive that dream over group identity and victimhood and grievance, then
08:21 nobody in the world, not a nation, not a corporation, not a virus is going to defeat us.
08:28 That's what American exceptionalism is all about, and that is what we together will revive
08:33 to save this great nation.
08:35 God bless you.
08:36 God bless your families.
08:37 Thank you for that warm welcome.
08:39 Let's open this up and have a conversation.
08:42 Love it.
08:43 I'm going to give you the microphone.
08:44 You come up here, brother.
08:45 Come on up.
08:46 Come on up.
08:47 Everybody's going to hear you say it.
08:48 >> How do you want to get the economy revved up again?
08:51 >> We're going to get the economy revved up.
08:53 Here's how you do it.
08:54 It's actually really simple.
08:55 GDP growth, not 1%, 5%.
08:58 How do we get there?
09:00 Unapologetically.
09:01 Do not apologize for capitalism.
09:03 Do not apologize for excellence.
09:05 Drill, frack, burn coal, embrace ethanol, use nuclear, unlock American energy.
09:11 That's the first step.
09:13 Second step, don't pay people to stay at home instead of to go to work.
09:17 Put people back to work.
09:20 That's who we are as Americans.
09:24 Third step, reform the US Federal Reserve.
09:27 You don't need to play financial god.
09:30 Stabilize the dollar.
09:31 Tie it to gold, silver, nickel, agricultural commodities.
09:37 Stabilize the US dollar.
09:39 And then you get in there, and we will drain that swamp, shut down the three-letter agencies
09:44 that act like a wet blanket on the US economy.
09:48 75% headcount reduction of employees in Washington, DC in my first term.
09:54 That's how you get to 5% growth.
09:56 That is American exceptionalism.
09:58 Thank you.
09:59 Next question.
10:00 Hi, Vivek.
10:01 Thanks for coming to Iowa.
10:02 First of all, I love seeing you on the All In podcast.
10:06 You were fantastic.
10:07 Thank you for doing that.
10:08 The voice, so amazing.
10:09 So your wife's a doctor.
10:11 You're at the Iowa State Fair.
10:13 What foods are you allowed to eat here?
10:15 Get up here.
10:16 Get up here.
10:17 It's a funny story.
10:18 I was like stuffing my face with some funnel cake last night.
10:21 I tried to find my cell phone.
10:23 By the time I turn around, the second half of it's gone.
10:26 And here's the person who made that happen.
10:30 To be clear, I ate it.
10:35 But you know we love the eggs.
10:37 That was so good.
10:38 That stick was good.
10:40 And I just had the most delicious thin mint ice cream that I've ever had.
10:46 And right now, apparently there's some Girl Scouts who are serving it.
10:49 So double whammies.
10:51 Most importantly, you can get thin mints out of season right now.
10:54 So huge hit.
10:57 That strawberry ice cream's keeping me real fit right now.
10:59 That's what's going on.
11:00 >> Please.
11:01 >> Please.
11:02 >> Your first tenet is God is real.
11:03 >> Yes.
11:04 >> What do you mean by that?
11:08 >> I mean that we are one nation under a single God.
11:11 I believe there is a higher power.
11:13 I believe there is one true God.
11:14 I believe we are a nation built under God.
11:17 I believe that we are all equal because we are all made in the image of God.
11:22 That is where our equality comes from.
11:24 It doesn't come from some nebulous secular value.
11:26 It comes from the fact that we are equal in the eyes of each other, as Reagan said it
11:31 too.
11:32 Because we are equal in the eyes of God.
11:35 That is what unites us.
11:36 And you think about this.
11:37 I don't care if you're black or white or Democrat or Republican or blue or green or anything.
11:41 I could care less.
11:43 If we remember that one thing, that is how we get back to national unity.
11:48 That is what, as a member of a different generation, I am in this race to restore.
11:52 We'll go here and then there.
11:53 >> You're fantastic.
11:54 That was a great answer.
11:59 As President of the United States, will you recognize the personhood of the unborn child
12:03 under Amendment 14 and 5?
12:06 >> So unborn life is life.
12:08 That is what I stand for.
12:09 I don't wish to apologize from my perspective.
12:12 I am unapologetically pro-life.
12:15 And the reality is, this doesn't have to be so divisive, guys.
12:20 It really doesn't.
12:21 I will, I'll give you a challenge.
12:23 We'll just say we can get back to national unity.
12:26 There's a case, Clarence Thomas brought it up.
12:29 Pregnant woman walking down the street, the unborn child dies as a result of an assault.
12:34 I can't find one American in this country who will say that that criminal does not deserve
12:39 liability for that death.
12:41 What does that say?
12:42 We share these instincts in common.
12:44 And for my part, I will walk the walk.
12:46 Here's what I'll say.
12:47 We can have a conversation about paths to adoption, to child care, to greater sexual
12:52 responsibility for men in an era of paternity tests.
12:55 So I will walk the walk.
12:57 But this isn't about men's or women's rights.
12:59 It's about human rights.
13:00 We have to all be in this together.
13:02 That's where I land on it.
13:08 Disincentivizing fatherlessness, such an important question.
13:10 So, so this is important to me and to a poor of a both, okay?
13:14 Neither of us grew up in money.
13:17 Both of our parents came to this country with literally nothing to their name.
13:21 But both of us actually had the ultimate privilege.
13:27 You hear that word bandied around a lot these days, privilege.
13:31 I'll admit it, I had it.
13:33 Two parents in the house with a focus on education and instilling in us a faith in God.
13:40 That is the ultimate privilege.
13:41 So how do we stop the fatherlessness epidemic where one out of four kids in this country
13:45 are denied that privilege?
13:48 Stop paying people to live in fatherless homes.
13:52 I visited the south side of Chicago.
13:54 I went to Kensington in the middle of the inner city of Philadelphia, places where Republican
13:58 candidates are taught by the political consultants not to go.
14:02 I reject their advice.
14:03 I'm not running to lead a political party.
14:05 I am running to lead a nation.
14:07 So we will show up and I don't blame the single mothers there who are paid more not to have
14:12 a man in the house than to have the man in the house.
14:14 I blame the federal government.
14:16 And it is my job to get in there and fix it.
14:17 We will not use your money to pay people to do the opposite of what is right for them.
14:22 More money not to have that man in the house.
14:24 More money not to go to work.
14:25 More money not to repay your student loan debts.
14:28 More money in Kensington to have a crack pipe and free needles rather than to get off drugs.
14:34 That's what we need is a government that stops using our money to pay people to do what is
14:38 even worse for them in the name of help.
14:41 That is not compassion, that is cruelty.
14:43 And I stand for that without apology.
14:45 Right here.
14:46 Come on up and you get the microphone.
14:48 Okay, first of all, I love you.
14:52 Second of all, if you are not able to secure the nomination, would you accept the job as
14:57 vice president?
14:59 So my friend Donald Trump is arriving and he and I share something in common.
15:03 Neither of us do pretty well in a number two position.
15:07 So I expect that he will be my advisor and I expect he will accept that job.
15:12 So we're running for the next generation and to the truth, truth of the matter, let's just
15:17 speak truth.
15:18 MAGA, America First, this is bigger than one man.
15:21 It does not belong to me, it does not belong to Trump, it belongs to you.
15:25 It belongs to us.
15:26 We the people, how do we take this to the next generation?
15:30 That's what this is about.
15:31 Thank you for that.
15:32 Speaking of young people, I like that.
15:37 When you are in a position to select your vice president, what attributes are you looking
15:42 for to compliment your values?
15:45 How old are you?
15:46 13 years old.
15:47 Let's give her a round of applause.
15:51 See that's that next generation I'm talking about right there.
15:54 So proud of you.
15:55 What's your name?
15:56 Haley.
15:57 I saw you this morning too, didn't I?
15:59 Yes, you came double deck.
16:00 I love that.
16:01 Thank you.
16:02 So look, I think the vice president is one of many important positions.
16:06 Here's the attributes I look for though.
16:08 Alignment on the Constitution.
16:10 That's the thing that's most important of all.
16:13 Whether it's vice president to office of management and budget, to the office of personnel management,
16:18 to the cabinet, they have to share my view that there are three branches of government,
16:25 not four.
16:26 Okay?
16:27 So that administrative deep state, it's gotta go.
16:29 That is the source of our national cancer.
16:32 And so I don't want a vice president or a staff that acts like a mediator between me
16:37 and the administrative state.
16:38 I don't want a mediator.
16:40 I want a bulldog who is going to see through a vision that revives the integrity of our
16:45 republic.
16:46 It's not a Democrat or Republican issue.
16:48 It is the fact that we want the people who we elect to actually be accountable to us,
16:54 to we the people.
16:55 And I require a vice president who is loyal not to me, but to that vision.
16:59 I appreciate that Haley.
17:01 Back there.
17:02 Go ahead.
17:03 Loud.
17:04 [inaudible]
17:05 You're right.
17:06 So, so this is the answer.
17:07 This is a, this is a debate we face.
17:08 Thank you for projecting.
17:09 That's, that's powerful.
17:10 So the question is, how do you deal with the deep state, particularly the federal police
17:21 state, which does not apply one standard of justice, it has two standards of justice.
17:31 That's a reality.
17:32 We do unfortunately have two standards of justice in this country.
17:35 One for Antifa and BLM, one for concerned parents who show up at school board meetings
17:40 called domestic terrorists.
17:41 Right?
17:42 So how do we solve it?
17:44 So when you have a bureaucracy that should not exist, that is a formula for corruption.
17:49 That is why I have said, and this has been very controversial, the press has attacked
17:52 me for this.
17:53 I've said that I will not just reform the FBI, fire Christopher Wray or something like
17:58 this.
17:59 I don't believe in incremental reform.
18:00 I stand for revolution.
18:02 We will shut down the FBI.
18:06 That is how you drain the actual source of the problem.
18:11 But I also want to tell those of you who think, does that sound extreme?
18:14 Is this guy a little crazy, a little bit of a young lunatic here?
18:19 Actually it's deeply practical.
18:20 And let me explain to you why.
18:23 There's 35,000 employees at the FBI.
18:26 Nobody's offered this kind of detail before.
18:28 The detail matters.
18:29 You guys are Iowa, you can handle it.
18:30 35,000 employees.
18:31 20,000 of them are in back office functions, going into the J. Edgar Hoover building of
18:37 the FBI, reporting in for work every day.
18:42 They should find honest work in the private sector, and under my watch they will.
18:47 There's 15,000 good people on the front lines.
18:51 We're going to reassign them to the US Marshals, to the DEA, the Drug Enforcement Agency, to
18:56 the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
18:58 They're much better at fighting crime, much better at stopping the child sex trafficking
19:02 rings in this country.
19:03 The US Marshals are way better than the FBI at that.
19:06 So this is deeply practical.
19:07 This is also how we actually protect Americans while also restoring true integrity in our
19:15 government.
19:16 Love your shirt, so I'm going to come to you next.
19:17 Loud.
19:18 [inaudible]
19:29 Love that.
19:30 So what Jesuit high school do you go to?
19:31 Loyola?
19:32 St. Ignatius.
19:33 So St. Ignatius guy here.
19:35 I'm a St. X guy.
19:36 So he knows I went to a Jesuit high school.
19:39 It actually had a deep impact on me.
19:42 So there's one Jesuit expression.
19:44 Jesuits are, you know, intellectual breed of Catholicism that's actually thinking about
19:48 what we aspire to.
19:50 There's a term they teach you at St. Ignatius, the magus.
19:53 The more.
19:55 So the magus refers to the idea that we seek more of ourselves, that we expect more of
20:01 the people closest to us and of ourselves to push each other, our classmates in high
20:05 school to new heights we would not have reached.
20:08 We call that the magus.
20:09 St. X's slogan was "men for others."
20:12 But the reason we said men for others is how do you do it for others?
20:14 You push others to do more for others than they otherwise could have done.
20:20 That is what it means to be American, actually.
20:22 We aspire to the more.
20:24 We as Americans, we're the pioneers.
20:26 We're the explorers.
20:27 We're the people who nobody's gonna stop.
20:29 There ain't gonna be a government that stands in our way from stopping me from achieving
20:34 my maximal potential.
20:36 So yes, did that class in ninth grade at St. X high school influence me as now a presidential
20:41 candidate and hopefully, if you all are willing, your next president, you're darn right they
20:46 do.
20:47 And I'm proud of you for bringing up your Jesuit values, too.
20:51 Okay, last — I'm being given a red sign that says "time is up," so I'm gonna close
20:57 with this.
20:58 Let me just close with this.
20:59 No, but he's doing his job.
21:00 Thank you and thank you for the invitation.
21:02 And you know, I'm glad the Des Moines Register is doing this.
21:05 Do I agree with everything they print?
21:06 No, I don't.
21:07 But open dialogue, this is what we need.
21:09 So thank you to them.
21:11 The thing I will say, I told some of you this this morning, I want to say it again because
21:14 it's so important.
21:17 We are not a nation in decline.
21:19 We don't have to be.
21:21 Both parties teach us that, that somehow we're at the end of the Roman Empire.
21:25 We're on our way down.
21:27 We're like ancient Rome crumbling to pieces.
21:29 We don't have to be a nation in decline.
21:32 We don't have to be Rome.
21:35 I think the truth is, as a nation, we, like Haley sitting right here, we as a nation are
21:46 really just a little young.
21:50 Going through our own version of adolescence.
21:55 Figuring out who we're really gonna be when we grow up.
21:58 And when you view it that way, you know, you're a teenager, you go through adolescence.
22:03 You might have your self-confidence shaken from time to time.
22:06 You lose your sense of who you are.
22:08 I don't know about you, but I certainly did.
22:11 But we are stronger for it when we get to our adulthood on the other side.
22:16 So we don't have to be a nation in decline.
22:17 I think we are a nation still in our ascent.
22:22 In the early stages of our ascent.
22:25 Still on our way to that mountaintop.
22:27 That shining city on a hill where no matter who you are, where your parents came from,
22:33 what your skin color is, you achieve anything you ever want in this country with your own
22:38 hard work, your own commitment, your own dedication.
22:43 That is the American dream.
22:45 That is what we are running to.
22:47 That is what we together will revive to save this great nation.
22:51 Thank you all.
22:52 God bless you.
22:53 God bless your families.
22:55 And God bless our great country.
22:57 Thank you.
22:58 Thank you.
22:59 Thank you.
22:59 (audience cheering)