Hannity Grills Vivek Ramaswamy on Comment About Israel: ‘You Want Me to Read It?’
Fox News host Sean Hannity grilled Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy about his campaign policies regarding Israel on Monday in a tense interview.
The interview became confrontational straight out of the gate after Hannity opened, “You said aid to Israel, our number one ally, only democracy in the region, should end in 2028 and that they should be integrated with their neighbors.”
“That’s false,” Ramaswamy protested.
“That was the exact quote. You want me to read it?” Hannity asked.
“I can tell you the exact quote,” Ramaswamy replied.” What I said is it would be a mark of success if we ever got to a point in our relationship with Israel if Israel never needed the United States’ aid, and Sean, you know how politics is played. A lot of the other professional politicians who have been threatened by my rise have used that statement to say that I would cut off aid to Israel. That’s not correct. I’ve been crystal clear.”
After Hannity asked Ramaswamy whether he understood “the importance of the strategic alliance,” “intelligence sharing in an area of the world where we have a lot of enemies,” and “how important it is with Iran especially seeking nukes,” Ramaswamy responded:
I understand it I think more deeply than probably anybody in this race. I’ve traveled to Israel. I have business partners in Israel. The reality is this, by the end of my first term our relationship with Israel will will be stronger than it ever has been because I will treat it as a true friendship, not just a transactional relationship.
Hannity pushed, “Then why did you say that they shouldn’t have preferential treatment? Why did you say that Israel should not have preferential treatment from us? That’s a direct quote.”
“No, those are direct quotes from headlines summarized by opposition research fed to the fake news media,” Ramaswamy argued, before claiming that “Abraham Accords 2.0 is my top priority, which is to get Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar into that pact with Israel, and foremost, to have a partnership with Israel that does something really important for the U.S., which is to make sure that Iran never, ever, ever has nuclear capabilities.”
Ramaswamy also told Hannity that the United States should learn from Israel and concluded:
I would love Israel’s border policies in this country. I would love Israel’s tough on crime policies and strong national identity in this country. I would love an iron dome like Israel has to defend itself against Hamas, which is a good thing for Israel. I want something like that here in the United States. So I don’t read from the traditional GOP talking point binder that’s handed to traditional candidates, that’s true. That lends itself to be misquoted. But it’s actually a much authentic commitment to Israel on the substance than just checking out the talking point of saying that we stand with Israel. That’s meaningless. I prefer substance.
Watch above via Fox News.
