Less than forty-eight hours after Israel declared war against the Hamas following an attack that killed more than 1,000 citizens of the Jewish State, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told college students in the South Carolina Upstate that America must stand with Israel.
Over the weekend, Palestinian militants stormed Israel with rockets while simultaneously breaching their barricade on the Gaza Strip. The 40-mile partition was fractured across 29 points with little resistance, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The death toll across both sides of the newly declared war is upwards of 2,000, including at least 11 Americans.
On Monday evening (October 9, 2023) while the IFD was reportedly striking 500 enemy targets within the Gaza Strip, Ramaswamy addressed a town hall of approximately 300 students at Wofford College’s historic Leonard Auditorium in Spartanburg, S.C.
The Indian-American entrepreneur from Ohio has been on the receiving end of attacks from fellow GOP contenders – most notably former S.C. Governor Nikki Haley – for having “no foreign policy experience.”
At Monday’s town hall – moderated by Wofford alumnus Van D. Hipp Jr. – Ramaswamy touted his inexperience while addressing the newfound turmoil in the Middle East. Ramaswamy’s appearance came after he formally signed paperwork for his name to appear on the presidential primary ballot in South Carolina.
“Israel has absolutely the fullest right to defend itself and its national existence,” Ramaswamy said. “The reality is, what happened in Israel was barbaric. The attack was medieval in its nature.”
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The 38-year-old – whose net work is estimated to exceed $950 million – said the U.S. needs to ensure Israel is armed and equipped to defend itself while expeditiously investigating what went wrong. Id est, how a terrorist network easily bypassed one of the world’s most advanced security systems.
“There was a major intelligence and Israeli defense failure,” Ramaswamy said more than once. “Everybody else is saying that’s a question for later. I disagree. I think that is a question for now. We need to understand what went wrong there.”
Ramaswamy said decisions made over the next week could bring major consequences for the United States and its allies. This is why the millennial candidate made clear that the U.S. needed to identify what ‘apparatus’ caused this failure so as not to enable something worse.
Following his hour-long town hall encompassing Ukraine, Russia, China, Taiwan and the like, FITSNews once again spoke with Ramaswamy on Haley’s claim that he lacks foreign policy experience.
“I think she has foreign policy experience and it shows; supporting pro-war policies that haven’t advanced American interests,” Ramaswamy said. “But I’m not running against any of them as individual candidates. I’m running against a system that produces these neocon puppets. For the White House, we need a president who looks after the interests of Americans and it’s going to take a new generation of leadership to do that.”
According to the latest aggregate polling data from RealClearPolitics, Former U.S president Donald Trump remains the ‘runaway’ frontrunner in the Palmetto State with the support of 47.8 percent of the Republican electorate.
Ramaswamy trails behind Haley (15.3 percent), Florida governor Ron DeSantis (11.3 percent) and S.C. senator Tim Scott (9.8 percent), with 4.3 percent of overall support from the Republican electorate in South Carolina. Nationally, the GOP presidential hopeful remains in fourth place.
South Carolin will host its quadrennial “First in the South” presidential primary on February 24, 2024 following caucuses in Iowa (January 15), a primary election in New Hampshire (TBD) and a caucus race in Nevada (February 8, 2024).
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy award-winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. Cut from a bloodline of outlaws and lawmen alike, he was the first of his family to graduate college which was accomplished with honors. Got a story idea or news tip for Andy? Email him directly and connect with him socially across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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1 comment
I guess Vivek is cutting more checks than Trump nowadays.