科技企业家维韦克·拉马斯瓦米(Vivek Ramaswamy)在民意调查中的支持率有所上升，在改革联邦政府以根除“wokeness”的平台上超过了老牌政客。然而现在，他把他的反体制信息带到了外交政策上——并引发了他可能会在共和党全国委员会的舞台上遇到的反弹周三第一场初选辩论.
美国广播公司新闻回顾了拉马斯瓦米最近的一些言论，阐述了他如果当选总统将如何处理外交政策。
乌克兰和俄罗斯
最近几天，拉马斯瓦米更加坚定地认为，华盛顿对乌克兰的支持不符合美国的最佳利益。
拉马斯瓦米表示，他会让俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京保留乌克兰部分地区他告诉美国广播公司新闻说，“中俄军事联盟是对美国的最大军事威胁”，必须拆除这一联盟——他认为这是两党的“亲美政策”。
“我将通过实际降级来确保我不是战时总统。确保我们有能力拆散这个联盟，做一笔弗拉基米尔·普京会做的交易，因为他理性地超越了他现在的处境。但我们走得更远，”他说，与少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)等参议院共和党人人的意见相左。
拉马斯瓦米表示，他将在上任第一年优先考虑莫斯科之行，他表示，如果普京退出俄罗斯与中国的军事伙伴关系，他将做出北约永远不会接纳乌克兰的“硬性承诺”。
前新泽西州长克里斯·克里斯蒂称拉马斯瓦米在乌克兰问题上的立场是不真实的。
“维韦克是特朗普的僚机。维韦克·拉马斯瓦米在这个问题上所说的没有任何实质内容，”克里斯蒂告诉华盛顿邮报八月。
在一个在X上发布Ramaswamy回应说，“可耻的是@GovChristie和两党机构的其他人正在滔滔不绝地谈论更多关于乌克兰的废话”，并补充说他们试图将美国带入对俄罗斯的“潜在核战争”。
2023年8月5日，共和党总统候选人维维克·拉马斯瓦米在爱荷华州韦尔的竞选活动中发表讲话。
查理·内伯戈尔/美联社
拉马斯瓦米在尼克松总统图书馆公布了他的外交政策构想周四，他提出了一个减少参与与美国没有直接关系的外交事务的愿景。此外，他说他将推动其他国家成为“自己国家安全的第一保护者”，而不是在西半球“扰乱”美国。
中国和中国台湾
拉马斯瓦米似乎还提出了美国不再干预的时间表阻止中国可能入侵台湾两党议员都表示，如果北京入侵，美国应该保卫这个自治的岛屿。
Ramaswamy上周在佐治亚州亚特兰大市的Erick Erickson“聚会”上发表讲话时说，只有在美国实现半导体独立之前，他才会阻止中国入侵台湾。美国通过立法例如《芯片法案》作为一项国家安全措施，微软正致力于加强其芯片制造技术。
“我认为，这肯定是下一任美国总统最重要的外交政策目标:宣布从中国经济独立，只要我们在半导体方面依赖台湾，就阻止中国追求台湾，同时避免在这个过程中发生战争，”他说。
拉马斯瓦米还主张用AR-15武装和训练每个台湾家庭并建议全国步枪协会在该国开设一个分支机构，以进一步阻止任何冲突。全国步枪协会目前仅在美国直接运作。
如果中国决定入侵台湾，拉马斯瓦米曾表示，他不会愿意冒着美国军队的生命危险为台湾而战。
以色列和中东
拉马斯瓦米为以色列的财政支持设定了类似的截止日期，他说，虽然他希望“亚伯拉罕协议2.0”能够在以色列和其他国家之间建立更多的正常化协议，但对以色列的财政援助不应像现在这样无限期或定期提供。
“我想让以色列回到谈判的地方，回到中东其他地区的基础设施中去。我们不应该担心在一个与巴勒斯坦有关的特定问题上挟持一个国家或一个地区，”拉马斯瓦米在8月初接受演员和活动家拉塞尔·布兰德的采访时说。
拉马斯瓦米对第二轮亚伯拉罕协议的讨论，以色列在2020年达成了正常化协议与多个中东国家的关系，明显呼应了唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)政府在两党支持下的一项关键外交政策成就。据报道，拜登政府一直在探索以色列和沙特阿拉伯之间类似的正常化协议，尽管官员们警告说，任何协议都是一个漫长的过程。
拉马斯瓦米将“2.0”协议框定为允许以色列“自立”，从而减少对美国外援的需求。
拉马斯瓦米关于援助以色列的提议面临一些阻力。共和党犹太联盟首席执行官马特·布鲁克斯在给拉马斯瓦米的信中写道“现在不是结束一项援助计划的时候，该计划为我们的国家带来了如此多的好处，加强了我们的关键战略盟友以色列，并有助于中东的稳定。”
共和党候选人、前美国驻联合国大使妮基·黑利谴责拉马斯瓦米关于结束“美国的优惠待遇，尽管我们与以色列的关系增进了美国的利益”的立场，称“他的外交政策有一个共同的主题:它们使美国变得不那么安全。”
Ramaswamy的发言人Tricia McLaughlin回应Haley的评论说，他们希望她“在美国公司董事会的未来努力中”一切顺利。
9/11和美国政府
拉马斯瓦米对美国政府的9/11委员会和2021年9月11日恐怖袭击的叙述表示怀疑。尽管候选人说这不是他竞选的核心问题，他写道政府可能误导了外国在9/11事件中的参与，并告诉《大西洋》的一名记者，他想找到9/11的“真相”，呼应了关于这一天的虚假说法。
拉马斯瓦米说:“我认为有理由说，撞上双子塔的飞机上有多少警察，多少联邦特工。”告诉大西洋在关于2021年1月6日的讨论中。
拉马斯瓦米和他后来的竞选活动声称他的话被误解了他说的是2021年1月6日的联邦特工。针对这些说法,《大西洋月刊》发布了文字记录和录音他关于9/11的言论显示，拉马斯瓦米被准确引用，并在9/11讨论的背景下。
“我们很感激《大西洋月刊》在我们再三要求后发布了这段音频。这段音频清楚地表明，Vivek被严重断章取义，甚至这个小片段也证明了这一点，”McLaughlin在美国广播公司新闻的一份声明中说。“我们继续鼓励《大西洋月刊》发布更多的录音，而不是他们精心挑选的片段，以便暴露完整的背景和现实。”
竞选中的另一位候选人、前副总统迈克·彭斯称拉马斯瓦米对9/11委员会的怀疑是攻击性的。
“我知道9/11时他可能还在读小学，而我当时在国会山，”彭斯告诉《华盛顿邮报》新罕布什尔州工会领袖八月初。“我认为像这样的评论，像这样的阴谋论，侮辱了我们的军队的服务和牺牲，他们与决心杀死我们的敌人作战。”
拉马斯瓦米本月早些时候刚满38岁，911事件发生时他还在上高中。
拉马斯瓦米在一篇文章中回应了彭斯的批评在X上发布(前Twitter)为他的不信任和评论辩护，作为他对所谓的政府谎言寻求“真相”的一部分。
Ramaswamy breaks from GOP orthodoxy on foreign policy, sparks pushback ahead of first debate
Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has seen a boost in the polls, surpassing established politicians on a platform of revamping the federal government to root out "wokeness." Now, though, he's taken his anti-establishment message to foreign policy -- and sparked backlash along the way that he's likely to confront on stage at the Republican National Committee'sfirst primary debate Wednesday.
ABC News has reviewed some of Ramaswamy's recent remarks to lay out how he plans to tackle foreign policy if elected president.
Ukraine and Russia
In recent days, Ramaswamy has doubled down on his view that Washington's support for Ukraine is not in America's best interest.
Ramaswamy said he would let Russian President Vladimir Putin keepparts of Ukraineunder Moscow's control in exchange for severed ties with China, telling ABC News that "the China-Russia military alliance is the single greatest military threat to the United States" and it's imperative that it be dismantled -- a take he views as a bipartisan, "pro-American policy."
"I will ensure that I'm not a wartime president by actually de-escalating. Make sure that we're in a position to pull apart that alliance, do a deal that yes, Vladimir Putin would do because he comes out of it rationally ahead of where he is now. But we come out even further ahead of where we are," he said, breaking from the opinions of Senate Republicans such as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Ramaswamy, who said he would prioritize a trip to Moscow in his first year in office, said he would make a "hard commitment" that NATO should never admit Ukraine, provided that Putin exit Russia's military partnership with China.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called Ramaswamy's position on Ukraine unsubstantial.
"Vivek is Trump’s wingman. There’s no substance to what Vivek Ramaswamy is saying on this issue," Christietold The Washington Postin August.
In apost on X(formerly Twitter), Ramaswamy responded, "Shamefully @GovChristie and the rest of the bipartisan Establishment are spouting off more nonsense about Ukraine," adding that they are trying to bring the U.S. into "potential nuclear war" against Russia.
Ramaswamyunveiled his foreign policy vision at the Nixon Presidential LibraryThursday, promoting a vision with less involvement in foreign affairs that do not directly concern the U.S. Additionally, he said he would push other nations to be "the first protectors of their own national security" and to not "mess with" the U.S. in the western Hemisphere.
China and Taiwan
Ramaswamy also appeared to put a timeline on when the U.S. would no longer intervene indeterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, the self-governing island that bipartisan lawmakers have said the U.S. should defend if Beijing invades.
In his remarks at Erick Erickson's "Gathering" in Atlanta, Georgia, last week, Ramaswamy said he would discourage China from invading Taiwan only until the U.S. achieves semiconductor independence. The U.S., through legislationsuch as the CHIPS Act, is working to bolster its chip-making technology as a national security measure.
"I think it is certainly the most important foreign policy objective for the next U.S. president: to declare economic independence from China, to deter China from going after Taiwan for so long as we rely on Taiwan for our semiconductors while avoiding war in the process," he said.
Ramaswamy has alsoadvocated for arming and training every Taiwanese household with AR-15sand suggested the National Rifle Association open a branch in the country to further deter any conflict. The NRA is currently only directly operational in the United States.
Should China decide to invade Taiwan, Ramaswamy has said he would not be willing to risk the lives of American troops to fight on Taiwan's behalf.
Israel and the Middle East
Ramaswamy set a similar expiration date on financial support for Israel, saying that while he wanted an "Abraham Accords 2.0" that would create more normalization deals between Israel and other countries, financial aid for Israel shouldn't be given indefinitely or regularly as it is now.
"I want to get Israel to the place where it is negotiated back into the infrastructure of the rest of the Middle East. We should not be worried about holding one nation or one region hostage over one particular question relating to Palestine," Ramaswamy said in an interview with actor and activist Russell Brand in early August.
Ramaswamy's discussion of a second round of Abraham Accords,a 2020 deal where Israel established normalization agreementswith multiple Middle Eastern countries, notably echoes a key foreign policy achievement of Donald Trump's administration with bipartisan support. The Biden administration has reportedly been exploring a similar normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, although officials have cautioned that any deal is a long way out.
Ramaswamy has framed the "2.0" accords as allowing Israel "to stand on its own feet" and thus needing less foreign aid from the United States.
Ramaswamy's proposal about aid to Israel has faced some pushback. Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brookswrote in a letter to Ramaswamythat "now is not the time to end an aid program that provides so much benefit to our nation, strengthens our key strategic ally Israel, and contributes to the stability of the Middle East."
Fellow GOP contender and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley condemned Ramaswamy's stance on ending "preferential treatment from the United States, even though our relationship with Israel has advanced American interests," saying that "his foreign policies have a common theme: they make America less safe."
Ramaswamy's spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin responded to Haley's comments saying they wish her well "on her future endeavors in corporate America's boardrooms."
9/11 and the U.S. government
Ramaswamy has expressed skepticism about the U.S. government's 9/11 Commission and recounting of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2021. Though the candidate has said that this is not a core campaign issue for him,he wrotethat the government may have been misleading about foreign involvement in 9/11 and told a reporter for the Atlantic that he wanted to find "the truth" about 9/11, echoing spurious claims about the day.
"I think it is legitimate to say how many police, how many federal agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers," Ramaswamytold the Atlanticin a discussion about Jan. 6, 2021.
Ramaswamy and his campaign laterclaimed his remarks were misconstruedand he was talking about federal agents on Jan. 6, 2021; in response to those claims, the Atlanticreleased a transcript and recordingof his remarks about 9/11 that show Ramaswamy was quoted accurately and in the context of a 9/11 discussion.
"We are grateful that the Atlantic released the audio after we repeatedly asked them to do so. The audio clearly demonstrates that Vivek was taken badly out of context and even this small snippet proves that," McLaughlin said in a statement to ABC News. "We continue to encourage the Atlantic to release more of the recording, rather than their carefully selected snippet, so that full context and reality is exposed."
Former Vice President Mike Pence, another candidate in the race, has called Ramaswamy's skepticism of the 9/11 Commission offensive.
"I understand he was probably in grade school on 9/11 and I was on Capitol Hill," Pence told theNew Hampshire Union Leaderin early August. "I think comments like that, conspiracy theories like that, dishonor the service and sacrifice of our armed forces who fought against our enemies determined to kill us."
Ramaswamy, who turned 38 earlier this month, was in high school on 9/11.
Ramaswamy responded to Pence's criticism in apost on X(formerly Twitter) defending his distrust and comments as part of his search for "the truth" against alleged government lies.
