onstage tonight, for candidates all vying to become their party's nominee. And given the state of affairs in our political system right now, one of you might very well do it. Even many Democrats now admit that President Biden is a weak candidate. Just as many Republicans acknowledge that former President Donald Trump's multiple legal troubles, could imperil his quest for a second term, all of which means one of you could wind up the leader of the free world. Mr. Trump is nearly 50 points ahead of all of you in the national polls. 29 points ahead in Iowa where the GOP caucuses are less than six weeks away. And so as Republicans get ready to vote on whether any of you might be preferable to Mr. Trump, we begin with the question of electability. Governor DeSantis. Your campaign and it's super PAC had spent the most money had the most high net worth donors and had a wave of momentum coming into this race after your big reelection when in Florida. You were seen by many as the candidate most likely to consolidate the non Trump field. But here we are a month out from the first real votes and you haven't managed to do it. In fact, Nikki Haley is beating you in New Hampshire and South Carolina now and closing in on you in Iowa. Not to mention Trump was not dominating in the early stage, but he's beating you in Florida by over 30 points. Is it fair to say as senators and Scott did when he dropped out that voters are telling you not? No, but not now? Just like
so. We have a great idea in
America that the voters actually make these decisions, not pundits or pollsters. I'm sick of hearing about these polls, because I remember those polls in November of 2022. They said there was going to be a big red wave. It was going to be monumental. And that crashed and burned. But one place it didn't crash and burn was in the state of Florida. They weren't predicting that I would win the way I did. And I won the greatest Republican victory in the history of the state of Florida. I'm looking forward to Iowa and New Hampshire, the voters are going to be able to speak and we're going to earn this nomination. And here's what we need. I am sick of Republicans who are not willing to stand up and fight back against what the left is doing to this country. You've got to be willing to stand strong and you've got to be willing to beat these people aren't the only one running for president that is beaten these people on issue after issue. We beat the teachers unions when we did school choice, we beat Fauci on COVID We beat George Soros. When we remove two of his radical district attorneys. We beat the Democrats on election integrity. I have delivered results. That's what we need for this country. And you have other candidates up here like Nikki Haley. She caves anytime the left comes after anytime the media comes after I did a bill in Florida to stop the gender mutilation of minors. It's child abuse and it's wrong. She opposes that bill. She thinks it's fine and the law shouldn't get involved with it. If you're not willing to stand up for the kids. If you're not willing to stand up and say that it is wrong to mutilate these kids, then you're not going to fight for the people back home. I will fight for you and I will win for you.
You left government service in 2018 with just $100,000 in the bank. Five years later, you're reportedly worth 8 million thanks so Luke, lucrative corporate speeches and board memberships like you had with Boeing. Weeks ago you met with Wall Street heavyweights including leaders from JP Morgan Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, several other billionaire investors are reportedly ready to endorse you or recently have all of which comes with expectations. Aren't you too tight with the banks and the billionaires to win over the GOP is working class base which mostly wants to break the system, not elect someone beholden to it?
Well, thank you. It's great to be here. You know, first I'll tell you just to respond to Ron i He continues to lie about my record. I actually said his don't say gay Bill didn't go far enough because it only talked about gender until the third grade. And I said it shouldn't be done at all that that's for parents to talk about. It shouldn't be talked about with schools, in reference to donors coming on board. Look, we will take support from anybody we can take support from but I have been a conservative fighter all my life. I was a Tea Party candidate when I became governor we opposed every single corporate bailout we possibly could we pass tort reform, we passed one of the toughest illegal immigration laws in the country. We pass pro life bills. We moved in unemployment from 11% to 3%. We took on the unions and we took the unions and Syrian refugees and everything in between and so I've had a fight. And so as much as Ron says that that's not true. But when it comes to these corporate people that want to suddenly support us, we'll take it, but you can they don't. I don't ask them what their policies are. They asked me what my policies are. And I tell them what it is. Sometimes they agree with me sometimes they don't some don't like how tough I am on China. some don't like the fact that I've signed pro life bills. some don't like the fact that I may oppose corporate bailouts. that doesn't matter. that's who I am. and that's why the most conservative grassroots group in the country Americans for Prosperity endorsed me last week, because
you didn't respond to the criticism, it wasn't about the parents rights education bill. operations on minors. They do puberty blockers. These are irreversible. Talk to Chloe Cole. She went through this now she's an adult she's warning gets it. She may never be able to have kids again. That is what Nikki Haley opposed. She said the law shouldn't get involved in that. And I just asked you if you're somebody that's going to be the President of the United States and you can't stand up against child abuse, how are you going to be able to stand up for anything? That is the truth.
I said, if you have to be 18 to get a tattoo, you should have to be 18 to have anything done to change that the
law should stay out of it.
Coming back to this issue, Mr. Ramaswamy. For months, you campaigned as a unifier. Then you stood up at the first debate and attacked all of your competitors as bought and paid for the second debate. You changed your tune saying these are good people on this stage admitting you can come across as a bit of a know it all, and rejecting the practice of personal insults. By debate number three, you called Nikki Haley corrupt accused Ron DeSantis of wearing high heels and told Ambassador Haley she should keep a closer eye on her daughter can you see how this has led some to conclude you are not in fact?
I think there's a time and place for everything. We need somebody in the White House who absolutely is going to be a fighter when it counts. And I did say that there were some good people on that stage and that debate was on that stage at that time. I want to go back to this comment from earlier that he is somehow not responding to the will of uselessness. When you left the UN after you left the UN you became a military contractor. You actually started joining service on the board of Boeing whose back you scratched for a very long time and then gave foreign multinational speeches like Hillary Clinton is and now you're a multimillionaire that math does not add up. It adds up to the fact that you are corrupt. And when I said they were bought and paid for I met the Republican establishment, not the Democratic establishment. Now you have Reed Hoffman, the person who's effectively George Soros Jr. Funding lawsuits across this country against Donald Trump to keep them off the ballots funding left wing causes discovered this week that he is one of Mickey Valley's largest support. Larry Fink, the king of the woke industrial complex, the ESG movement, the CEO of Blackrock, the most powerful company in the world, now supporting Nikki Haley, and to say that doesn't affect her as false because it's after that meeting later that day, that she says that every American that needs to be doxxed by having their ID their government issued ID tied to what they say on the internet. So I think that this is far more corrupt than I even imagined when I entered politics, but I will say this, it is going to take a leader from the outside with fresh lists from the next generation to unite this country, not the broken politicians who are puppets of the puppet masters, but the actual people in this country. Thomas Jefferson was 33 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence, I think it's going to take somebody who's best days in life or still ahead to see a country whose best days are ahead of itself. And I think I can reach that next generation better than anybody else in this race.
First of all, we weren't bankrupt when I left the UN were people of service My husband was in the military and I served our country as UN ambassador and Governor. It may be bankrupt to him, but it certainly wasn't bankrupt to us. Secondly, I did serve on the Board of Boeing. I did a lot of work with Boeing when I was governor. They were a great partner to me. I served for 10 months, and then when they decided after COVID that they wanted to go for a corporate bailout. I've never supported corporate bailout. So I respectfully stepped back and got off the board. I love Boeing. They build good commercial airplanes. They build airplanes for our Air Force. I am proud of them. They employ a lot of people in South Carolina, but that's why I left the Boeing board there's nothing to what he's saying. And in terms of these donors that are supporting me, they're just jealous. They wish that they were supporting them, but I'm not gonna sit there
talking about ESG and these low corporations and BlackRock, in Florida, they were managing our pension part of our pension. And then when they did the ESG, I took $2 billion away from Blackrock we took this ESG they call it environment, social governance. And again, Nikki is meeting with all these people. They want to use economic power to impose a left wing agenda on this country. They want basically to change society without having to go through the constitutional process. We've kneecapped it in the state of Florida, the next President of the United States needs to be able to go to that office on day one and MDSD and the fact of the matter is, we know from our history, Nikki will cave to those big donors when it counts and
Nikki Haley was heaping praise on me when I wrote that book, but now I worry I was warning about the woke industrial complex in this country as a warning, apparently she read it as a how to manual, just like George Orwell's book, as well. It's I think that that's actually far more dangerous than how it is really important that people understand. We're marching towards fascism under Biden, Jack Smith has subpoenaed every last tweet that someone has issued from Donald Trump in New York when he pointed the only person more fascist than the Biden regime now is Nikki Haley who thinks the government should identify boys with an ID that is not freedom that is fascism, and she should come nowhere near the levers of power level on the White House.
Can you please speak to the requirement that you said that every anonymous internet user needs to out themselves they're both hitting you on
it? I would be happy to and I love all the attention fellas. Thank you for that. I will. I'll say this. What I said was that social media companies need to show us their algorithms. I also said there are millions of bots on social media right now. They're foreign. They're Chinese. They're Iranian. I will always fight for freedom of speech for Americans. We do not need freedom of speech for Russians and Iranians and Hamas. We are media companies to go and lie back on all of these bots that are happening. That's what I said as a mom. As a mom, do I think that social media would be more civil. If we went and had people's names next to that? Yes, I do. Think that because I think we've got too much cyber bullying. I think we've got child pornography and all of those things. But having said that, I never said government should go and require anyone's name.
What's your name? She absolutely said it's a it's her. First day and honestly, one of the first
I said you can roll the tape. She said I want your name. And that was gonna be one of the first thing she did in office men. She got real serious blowback and understandably so because it'd be a massive expansion of government. We have anonymous speech. The Federalist papers were written with anonymous writer Shay Madison and Hamilton. They went under cumulus. It's something that's important, especially given how conservatives have lost jobs and they've been canceled. Jean would use that to weaponize that against our own people. It was a bad idea.
Former Governor Romney is so hypocritical because he actually went and tried to push a law that would stop anonymous people from talking to the press and went so far to say bloggers should have to register with the state if they're gonna talk about write about elected officials. It was in the check your newspaper, it was absolutely there.
On your constitutional rights later, this more dangerous than
this section is over. Okay.
Just stop it usually not somebody who gets missed but Okay, let's go.
Listen, you endorsed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. You gave him an A for his first term. Since then, however, you've turned on him, calling him a liar, a loser a con man and someone who cannot win you've even said that you got into this race just to stop President Trump. His approval rating with Republicans is currently at 1% Yours is at 25 Your best day is in Hampshire and even there, two thirds of GOP voters say they would be angry and disappointed if you want. perspective, the governor, you have not stopped Mr. Trump. And voters may wonder how you could possibly become the nominee of a party that does not appear to like you very much.
Well look back and it's often very difficult to be the only person on the stage who's telling the truth. And the only person who is taking on what needs to be taken on I look at my watch that we're 17 minutes into this debate. And except for your little speech in the beginning, we've had these three acting as if the race is between the four of us. The fifth guy who doesn't have the guts to show up and stands here. He's the one who as you just put it His way ahead in the polls. And yet, I've got these three guys who are all seemingly to compete with your Voldemort he or shall not be named. They don't want to talk about the fact is that when you go and you say the truth about somebody who is a dictator who has taken shots at everybody, whether they've given him great service or not, over time, who dares to disagree with him? But I understand why these three are timid to say anything about it. Maybe it's because they have future aspirations. Maybe those future aspirations are now or maybe they're four years from now. But the fact of the matter is, the truth needs to be like I'm done. 17 minutes without discussing the guy who has all those gaudy numbers you've talked about, is ridiculous. I'm in this race because the truth needs to be spoken. He is unfit. This is a guy who just said this past week that he wants to use the Department of Justice to go after his enemies when he gets in there. And the fact of the matter is, he is unfit to be president. And there is no bigger issue in this race. Megan, than Donald Trump and those numbers prove it.
Governor Christie, we will be addressing that issue of Donald Trump in just a moment. But I'd like to first get to some questions on Israel.
Governor DeSantis tonight
as we speak, the war is back on in Gaza Israeli tanks are on the move and have surrounded the home of the foot leader of Hamas. Eight Americans have been held hostage in the tunnels beneath Gaza for 60 days now. American troops and warships in the Middle East are under attack. How far would you go as President to secure the release of those eight American hostages and what it includes sending American forces into combat?
We have to look out for our people when they're hostages commander in chief you have to do whatever you can to get them done. But the overall issue with this is this administration is trying to hobble Israel from being able to defend itself. They have a right to eliminate Hamas and win a total and complete victory so that they never have to deal with this again, Hamas wants nothing less than a second holocaust. They would wipe off every single Jew off the map. They would destroy the State of Israel if we could Joe Biden will say they support Israel and then they do nothing. But try to kneecap them every step of the way. You should not try to direct their war effort. We should work together with them so that they can bring Hamas to heel. Look, I served in Iraq back in the day. I'm the only one running for president that served in the military. I understand that part of the world. It's not the best part of the world. We do have troops there that Biden is leaving basically is sitting ducks. And you have the Iranians that are attacking these troops and he's responding with basically pinpricks, you harm an American service member you're gonna have hell to pay when I'm president. We are not going to let our troops be sitting ducks. We also need to look at what's the underlying problem here. Biden is doing nothing to bring a ran to account. You got to turn the screws on them. Don't let them have any oil revenue, the money they get. They send to Hamas they send to Hezbollah and they foment Jihad throughout the Middle East. So Biden has empowered Iran just like he's out and powered other adversaries. We stand with Israel. They're our best ally in the Middle East. We have a unique relationship with them, and you will see a strong relationship when I'm the president United States.
This is the problem with the first three debates. Ron gets asked the question, and he doesn't answer. Your question was very specific. You said would you send the American troops as commander in chief, and he went on to this minute and 32nd Hosana about his knowledge of the military and what we need to do and didn't answer your question. Well, when you're president united states, you're not gonna have a choice whether to answer that question or not. Your generals, your Secretary of Defense, your Secretary of State, your national security adviser are going to present plans to you they're going to look at you and say, Do we go or don't we, Mr. President, and you can't give a 92nd speech about your military services
and American troops.
salutely Absolutely. If they had a plan, which showed me that we could get them out safely. You're damn right. I'd send the American army in there to get our people home and get them home now. And I'll answer that question directly.
Thank you, Governor Christie. Mr. Ramaswamy. You said it possible for Ambassador Haley to call her Paris rampage and attack on America and 23rd to quote rapidly shout finish them and quote the Hamas terror attack left dozens of Americans dead and was the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Why wouldn't it be a good thing to finish Hamas?
Finish them was purposefully vague in a discussion that included Iran, which is what I objected to. And I think it's as US president you have to be responsible. What happened to Israel was dead wrong. What Hamas did was medieval. It was immoral and we have to clear that out for what it is. But to say that that was an attack on America fails a basic test I mean, it could be can't tell the difference between where Israel is in the US is on a map I can have my three year old son show you the difference that is responsible because it has major consequences because that is the strongest pro Israel position actually on the stage even though it's a little bit different than the standard GOP talking points. And it is this the founding vision of Israel, David Ben Gurion, the George Washington figure of Israel, what did he believe? He believed that we had to depend on the fliegen sympathies that the West I think Israel has an absolute right to defend itself to the fullest without the US as the Biden administration is now starting to do, I think that's a more deeply pro Israel position than anybody else. And it keeps the actual lines of accountability clear, because it is a pro American position, and as leader of the United States of America, just as as a father of two sons, my soul moral duty is to my family, as your next president. My sole moral duty is to you the people of this country. That's how I'm going to lead so I'll tell Bibi, you smoke the terrorists on your southern border. You go ahead and we're rooting for you. We're going to smoke the terrorists on our own southern border and that's how I'm going to leave this executed.
If you you look at the number of Americans, this would be one of the top 10 terrorist attacks in American history. So our own people were killed in that attack. And I think it's absolutely appropriate to point that out. And to say that we're in this together and we are going to work with Israel so that these people are brought to justice.
I agree with that. Ambassador
Haley, I'm coming to you. Irfan is on the threshold of becoming a nuclear state. The Wall Street Journal reported that Iranian military leaders gave the green light for Hamas his attack on Israel. He said in last month's debate that by contrast to the Biden administration's approach to Iran, you would quote, punch them once and punch them hard. Were you saying that it's time to bomb Iran? No,
I was not saying it's time to bomb Iran. But I will tell you I dealt with Iran every day when I was at the United Nations and they only respond to strength. What they don't respond to is when you weaken the sanctions, like they did on Iran that allowed China to send them billions to fill their proxies. What they don't respond to is when you give $6 billion for five hostages that only makes them want more hostages. What they don't respond to is when they do 140 strikes on our men and women in Syria and rack and we do nothing but just some small shots back. You've got to punch them, you've got to punch them hard, and let them know that that's the only way they're going to respond to the way you do. That is you go after their infrastructure in Syria and Iraq where they're hitting our soldiers. That's what you do, and then that's when they'll back off. The problem is, you have to see that all of these are related. If you look at the fact Russia was losing that war with Ukraine, Putin had hit rock bottom they had raised the draft age to 65. He was getting drones and missiles, drone from Iran missiles or North Korea. And so what happened when he hit rock bottom? All of a sudden, his other friends, Iran, Hamas goes and invades Israel and butchers those people on Putin's birthday. There is no one happier right now. Then Putin because all the attention America had on Ukraine suddenly went to Israel, and that's what they were hoping is going to happen. We need to make sure that we have full clarity that there is a reason again that Taiwanese want to help Ukrainians because they know if Ukraine wins China want to invade Taiwan. There's a reason the Ukrainians want to help Israelis because they know that if Iran wins, Russia wins. These are all connected. But what wins all of that it's a strong America, not a weak America. And that's what Joe Biden has given us.
I want to say one thing about the tiny Ukraine. So foreign policy experience is not the same as foreign policy wisdom. I want everybody at home to know that I was the first person to say we need a reasonable peace deal in Ukraine. Now a lot of the Neo cons are quietly coming along to that position with the acceptance of Nikki Haley and Joe Biden who still support this what I believe is pointless war in Ukraine. And I think those are foreign policy experience. One thing that Joe Biden and Nikki Haley have in common is that neither of them could even state for you three provinces in eastern Ukraine that they want to send our troops to actually fight for. Look at that. This is what I want people to understand. These people have I mean, she has no idea what the hell the names of those provinces are, but she wants to send our sons and daughters and our troops and our military equipment to go fight it. So reject this myth that they've been selling you that somebody had a cup of coffee stint at the UN and then makes 8 million bucks after has real foreign policy experience. It takes an outsider to see this through look at the blank expression. She doesn't know the names of the croc unfolds, but she wants to actually decide for the donors or the owners right there.
Let me just say something here, you know, he's reasonable peace deal. In Ukraine. He made it clear. Give them all the land they've already stolen. Promise Putin you'll never put Ukraine in Russia, and then trust Putin not to have a relationship with China. Let me tell you exactly what to say. Every time. You okay, you send me that. You go out on this stuff. But you say something. All of us see it on video. We confront you on the debate stage. You say you didn't say it and then you backed away and I want to say I'm not done yet. Well, this no matter, Steve. This is the fourth debate. The fourth debate that you would be voted in the first 20 minutes as the most obnoxious blowhard in America.
was saying something else. We're now 25 minutes into this debate. Nikki Haley's basic intelligence not her positions, her basic intelligence. She doesn't know region, she wouldn't be able to find something on a map that his three year old could find. Look, if you want to disagree on issues, that's fine. And Nikki and I disagree on some issues, but I'll tell you this. I've known him for 12 years, which is longer than he's even starting to vote in the Republican primaries point about who should be president United States? Well, we don't disagree on this. This is a smart accomplished woman you should stop insulting this.
things right. First of all, Chris Christie also doesn't know what provinces in eastern Ukraine. He actually want us to fight for. Piracy experience was closing a bridge from New Jersey to New York to do everybody just walked himself off that stage enjoy a nice meal and get the hell out of this. Band and sons and daughters. Because I'm speaking, and I'm not done yet. I haven't heard your time when you want it to be done. So listen, these people want to send your sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine. They've been arguing for it for a year $200 billion of our taxpayer money sent over. Neither of them could even name for you the provinces that they actually want to protect. And this is the people who've been touting their so called foreign policy experience. It is intellectual fraud. These people are lying to you the same people who told you about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify that invasion didn't know the first thing about it if they sent 1000s of our sons and daughters to go die. The same people who told you the same in Afghanistan, where the Taliban is still in charge. 20 years later, 7 trillion of our national debt due to these toxic Neo cons you could put lipstick on a dick cheney it is still a neocon today
