Welcome back. New polling from the New York Times finds
25% of voters view President Biden's years in office as
mostly good for the United States.
A full 42%. Remember President Trump's time in the Oval
Office as good for America?
Joining me now is former
2024 presidential candidate, entrepreneur, and author of Capitalist Punishment.
How Wall Street Is Using your Money to Create a
Country You did not Vote for.
Viveka Ramaswami, back with me.
Vivek, great to see you.
Thanks very much for being here this morning.
How would you assess the state of the race today?
Look, I think this is a unique opportunity that Americans
have.
It's a once in a century opportunity,
Maria, where you get 2 presidents whose track records you
get to compare side by side.
Usually if you have a challenger to an incumbent like
Biden,
you're offered hopes and dreams.
That's not what they get.
This time you got four years of Trump with sealed
borders,
a growing economy and a strong standing on the global
stage.
Four years of Biden. You have rising prices,
rising interest rates with flat wages,
and open border like we've never seen in our nation's
history.
And we can literally see it marching our way towards
major conflict because of America's weakness.
The choice is clear. Voters get to make that choice,
and I think that's becoming crystal clear,
which is why we're seeing President Trump in the pole
position.
Well, I mean, a group of major news outlets,
including Fox News,
CNNABCCBS, are urging the presidential candidates to publicly commit to
a debate for the
2024 election. In a joint statement,
they write this. If there is one thing Americans can
agree on during this polarized time,
it is that the stakes of this election are exceptionally
high.
There is simply no substitute for the candidates debating with
each other and before the American people.
Their visions for the future of our nation,
they think. I mean, this is no secret.
We all want to debate before a presidential election.
But will the administration commit to putting Biden up on
stage with President Trump
next to each other before September,
when many people will have already voted?
This is what American politics is supposed to be about
at its best,
Maria's. Each party puts up its best candidate.
They have competing visions. They offer the American people,
and the American people get to choose their presidency.
That was what would make our own Founding Fathers proud.
And yet here's where we are today,
a nightmare of that vision where the party in power
is trying to use prosecutorial power to prosecute its political
opponents in the middle of an election,
even trying to remove one of their candidates from the
ballot,
threatening tech companies to silence the speech of political opponents.
That is a nightmare vision of what our founding fathers
set into motion.
And so both candidates and both parties have an opportunity
to unite this country.
President Biden needs to show up to debate.
I will call on him to publicly come out of
his cave and to share with the American people what
is his vision for this country so they can compare
that to Donald Trump's and make their choice in a
free and fair election.
That's what America is supposed to be about,
and that's what we need to revive in this election.
Well, will President Trump be able to handle the campaigning
along with all of these indictments?
I mean, jury selection for the former president,
this criminal trial, I don't know how you get to
criminal trial by paying off this,
this porn star. Anyway, it's going to begin today in
Manhattan.
Vivek, your thoughts as jury selection begins.
Look, is President Trump going to be able to handle
it?
Yes. Is this what should be happening during a presidential
election?
Absolutely not. And this Manhattan DA trial led by Alvin
Bragg's prosecution reveals the farce of all of these prosecutions.
Think about the legal theory underlying this case.
It is broken to its core.
On one hand, they say that he should have used
campaign funds to make this hush money payment.
On the other hand, had he used campaign funds,
that actually would have been more likely a case for
legal violation.
So they were going to get him going or they
were going to get him coming.
You've got former SEC commissioner FEC commissioners like Bradley Smith
who have criticized the merits of this case.
This is prosecutorial abuse to its core.
And that being said, Maria,
let's move to the positive.
I think four more years of Trump,
I think we'll be able to reunite this country and
lead us out of this terrible period we have been
in.
America is not a country where you see the party
in power using prosecutorial force against its opponents.
That's the stuff of banana republics.
And yet that's where we are today.
But we don't have to stay there.
And I do think that after he wins,
Donald Trump is going to lead us to,
dare I say it, unite this country in a way
that people across America are hungry for.
And I think that's why people are rallying against these
prosecutions as unjust as they are.
Vivek, what Cabinet position are you expecting to get in
a Trump administration?
Look, I'm looking to serve this country in whatever way
I can.
It would be my honor to serve alongside President Trump.
I think the, the main focus,
to be honest with you now,
Maria, is making sure that he's elected.
Not just that he's elected by a little bit,
but elected by a landslide.
I think this can be a
19841980 Ronald Reagan style landslide.
And you know what, a landslide,
minus some shenanigans, is still going to be a decisive
victory.
That's what we need to unite this country and that's
what we need for a mandate to govern.
And so I'm going to be helpful as best I
can.
And you were very and you were very popular with
young people.
Will you be able to get those young people to
vote for Trump?
While Joe Biden is promising those same groups that he's
going to forgive their student loan,
look, I think that Joe Biden's trying to model of
bribery.
President Trump's trying to model of actually offering a vision
for where we're heading as a country,
reviving America's greatness. Success will be our vengeance.
I think it's a beautiful part of President Trump's message.
This year in particular, I saw young people across this
country in the campaign,
Maria. The reason that many of them interface with my
campaign and supported us is that they're hungry for an
alternative vision.
The left has fed them race and gender and woke
ISM and transgenderism.
We as conservatives have a chance to step up and
say,
here's what we stand for.
The individual, the family, the nation that I'm a citizen
of,
this nation, the United States of America.
And young people are starving for that sense of identity
and purpose and Donald Trump's vision to revive the greatness
of this country.
And I believe that's what the Republican Party stands for
all the way down,
I think will propel major victories not just in the
White House,
but where we need them in Congress and in the
Senate and down ballot as well.
And I believe if we stay on track,
that's exactly what we're going to get.
Vivek, it's great to have you this morning.
We so appreciate it and we'll be watching your work.
Vivek Ramaswami joining us this morning.