In New Hampshire, a Democratic Congressman debates Ramaswamy
Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican presidential candidate, and Ro Khanna, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, faced off in New Hampshire on Wednesday in what was billed as a civil discussion between two Indian Americans over the future of the United States.
But over the course of an hour at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., Mr. Ramaswamy repeatedly relapsed into his stump speech about the “black hole” in America’s collective heart and his belief that the nation is not, as he once thought , the declining Roman Empire, while Mr Khanna struggled to boost President Biden’s reputation despite his opponent’s verbiage.
“It is, I think, deplorable to be carrying Joe Biden’s water when ordinary Americans know they are suffering under the policies coming from this administration,” Mr. Ramaswamy snapped back.
The appearance of Mr. Khanna, a California Democrat, on a stage in New Hampshire — the second for him this year — was evidence of the frustrations he says he feels with the way Mr. Biden and other Democrats are taking ground have yielded to Republicans on advancing an economic vision. The meeting was initially intended as a conversation about race and identity at the University of Chicago, but when Mr. Ramaswamy withdrew, Mr. Khanna challenged him on social media — and chased him into the first Republican primary state.
On November 30, Governor Gavin Newsom of California, who has tried to take the White House message to an audience he doesn’t think it’s reaching, said: will debate Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida on Fox News.
Ultimately, the Saint Anselm meeting was largely a showcase for Mr. Ramaswamy in an attempt to salvage a stagnant campaign, which dropped to fourth in the state poll averages, behind Mr. DeSantis, Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, and Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina who rose to second place. They are all well behind the frontrunner, Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Ramaswamy has shown that his staunch “America First” isolationism has not been shaken by the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas. At one point he declared, “I don’t care about leading in the Middle East,” while saying of Israel, “Let’s go out and let our true ally defend itself.”
Mr Khanna then asked: “Why do you have such an impoverished view of America that the only thing America will have is a provincial sense of its own importance?”
Mr. Ramaswamy also showed his inclination to not allow facts to get in the way of his views. When Mr Khanna bragged about the 13 million jobs created under Mr Biden, his opponent warned that government was “the sector with the largest job growth by far”.
While it is true that the public sector has shown signs of recovery in recent months, Government employment has remained below levels since last month the pre-pandemic level of 9,000 jobs, while the private sector has now recovered all the jobs lost during the pandemic and then some.
Mr Khanna has been outspoken in challenging his party and its president to become more aggressive in sharing a vision for more inclusive economic growth. On Wednesday, he tried again, talking about government investments to rebuild manufacturing: “For the Republicans, and I see some of this in what you passed, they see every problem, and they say, let’s cut taxes, let us deregulate,” Mr Khanna said. said. “What’s it like setting up a steel mill in Johnstown, Pennsylvania?”
But he largely missed the opportunity to highlight Biden’s biggest legislative achievements on industrial policy, which received only fleeting references: a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, a $280 billion measure to revive a domestic semiconductor industry and the Inflation Reduction Act, with associated spending to combat climate change.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ramaswamy’s threadbare talk of dismissing the threat of climate change, calling for the elimination of three-quarters of the federal government and cutting education spending went largely unchallenged.