Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was “using the Republican Party as a vehicle to advance an America first agenda.”
Ramaswamy said, “I don’t want to see this in terms of red versus blue. We’ve created an incentive structure in this country, increasingly whatever your political affiliation, to see yourself as a victim. I refuse to see myself as a victim. Hardship is not the same thing as victimhood. We are going through hardship as a country right now, including many conservatives. Hardship is sometimes not a choice. Victimhood is a choice.”
He continued, “So whoever the American is that I’m talking to, I say we do not choose victimhood. We choose victory. That is who we are. I think we can be stronger on the other side of it. Chuck, this isn’t some game of gotcha. I stand by everything I’ve written over the last three years in the books except on a few areas of facts, whereas the new facts that have come out, I’ve changed my mind. But in the core thesis, I am in the exact place as when I wrote the books.”
Ramaswamy added, “I am not in this race to lead a political party. I am in this race to lead a nation. I’m using the Republican Party as a vehicle to advance an America first agenda that I think many Americans, most Americans, can rally behind, and that’s what we will need.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN