Gage Skidmore - Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/24366765849
The first republican debate on August 23rd took place with eight candidates. Similar and new faces appeared on the debate involving former Vice President Mike Pence, former gov. Chris Christie, former gov. Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, former gov. Aka Hutchinson, gov. Ron DeSantis, gov. Doug Burgum and Sen. Tim Scott.
Biasly collected the quotes that show the stances of each politician’s stance on different topics. Not only national but also international topics are discussed by the candidates who share similar views on some issues but disagree with some of them. The table presents the summary of topics followed by the quotes.
Here is a list of politicians who participated in the First Republican Debate:
Nikki Haley
Abortion (mixed)
- “I am unapologetically pro-life, not because the Republican Party tells me to be, but because my husband was adopted, and I had trouble having both of my children. So I’m surrounded by blessings. Having said that, we need to stop demonizing this issue. This is talking about the fact that unelected justices didn’t need to decide something this personal, because it’s personal for every woman and man. Now, it’s been put in the hands of the people [back with each individual state to decide]. That’s great. When it comes to a federal ban, let’s be honest with the American people and say it will take 60 Senate votes. It will take a majority of the House. So in order to do that, let’s find consensus. Can’t we all agree that we should ban late term abortions? Can’t we all agree that we should encourage adoptions?”
Transgender (against)
- “And biological boys don’t belong in the locker rooms of any of our girls.”
COVID Stimulus Relief (against)
- “The truth is that Biden didn’t do this to us. Our Republicans did this to us, too. When they passed that $2.2 trillion COVID stimulus bill, they left us with 90 million people on Medicaid, 42 million people on food stamps.”
Government Spending (against)
- “I think it’s time for an accountant in the White House.”
Environmental Regulations (against)
- “…green subsidies that Biden has put in, all he’s done is help China because he doesn’t understand all these electric vehicles that he’s done, what that does that, half of the batteries for electric vehicles are made in China. And so, that’s not helping the environment. You’re putting money in China’s pocket.”
International Involvement (for):
- “A win for Russia is a win for China.”
Mike Pence’s acts on January the 6th: (for):
- “I do think that Vice President Pence did the right thing”
Donald Trump (against):
- “We have to look at the fact that three quarters of Americans don’t want a rematch between Trump and Biden. And we have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America. We can’t win a general election that way.”
School Choice Vouchers (for):
- “Parents need to be deciding which schools their kids go to, because they know best”
Law enforcement (for):
- “We will have the backs of our law enforcement.”
Economic adjustment (for):
- “No one has told you how to fix it. I’ll tell you how to fix it. They need to stop the spending. They need to stop the borrowing. They need to eliminate the earmarks that Republicans brought back in, and they need to make sure they understand these are taxpayer dollars. It’s not their dollars.”
- “I will strengthen our economy and we will bring this inflation down.”
Clean Energy (for):
- “First of all, we do care about clean air, clean water. We want to see that taken care of. But there’s a right way to do it. And the right way is first of all, yes, is climate change real? Yes, it is. But if you go want to go and really change the environment, then we need to start telling China and India that they have to lower their emissions.”
China:
- “That’s where our problem is. And these green subsidies that Biden has put in, all he’s done is help China because he doesn’t understand all these electric vehicles that he’s done, what that does that, half of the batteries for electric vehicles are made in China. And so, that’s not helping the environment. You’re putting money in China’s pocket. And Biden did that.”
Increase Ukraine fund (for):
- “Ukraine is the first line of defense for us. “
Ron Desantis
Government Spending (against):
- “We also cannot succeed when the Congress spends trillions and trillions of dollars.”
COVID Stimulus Relief (against):
- “Why are we in this mess? Part of it, and a major reason is because how this federal government handed COVID-19 by locking down this economy. It was a mistake.”
Abortion (against):
- “I’m going to stand on the side of life.”
Clean Energy (against):
- “We’re going to open up all energy production. We will be energy dominant again in this country.”
Common Core (for):
- “As president, I’m going to lead an effort to increase civic understanding and knowledge of our Constitution. We cannot be graduating students that don’t have any foundation in what it means to be an American.”
Border Asylum of Undocumented Immigrants (against):
- “I’m not going to send troops to Ukraine, but I am going to send them to our Southern border”
Mike Pence’s acts on January the 6th: (for):
- “Why are — he — Mike — Mike did his duty. I got no beef with him.”
Mandatory Military Service: (against):
- “I think it should be voluntary”
Dealing with crime (for):
- “And as President, we’re going to go after all of these people because they are hurting the quality of life, and they are victimizing innocent people in every corner of this country, and it will stop when I get into office.”
Dealing with drug cartels (for):
- “So, when they’re coming across, yes, we’re going to use lethal force. Yes, we reserve the right to operate”
Economic adjustment (for):
- “And it starts with understanding we must reverse Bidenomics so that middle class families have a chance to succeed again.”
International Involvement (against):
- “I’m — I’m not going to send troops to Ukraine, but I am going to send them to our Southern border.”
Increase Ukraine fund (against):
- “I’m — I’m not going to send troops to Ukraine, but I am going to send them to our Southern border.”
Department of Education (against):
- “Absolutely. The decline in education is one of the major reasons why our country is in decline. We need education in this country, not indoctrination in this country.”
Vivek Ramaswamy
LGBT Equality (against):
- “There are two genders.”
Clean Energy (against):
- “This isn’t that complicated, guys. Unlock American energy, drill, frack, burn coal, and embrace nuclear…”
- “The climate change agenda is a hoax.”
- “Fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity.”
International Involvement (against):
- “Ukraine is not a priority for the United States of America.”
Border Asylum of Undocumented Immigrants (against):
- “…we should use those same military resources to prevent across the invasion of our own southern border here in the United States of America. I think that we have to put the interests of Americans first. Secure our own border instead of somebody else’s. And the reality is this is also how we project strength and making America strong at home.”
Iran Nuclear Deal (against):
- “I will lead Abraham Accords 2.0. I will partner with Israel to make sure Iran never is nuclear-armed.”
Capitalism (for):
- “Capitalism lifts us up from poverty.”
Affirmative Action (against):
- “Reverse racism is racism.”
School Choice Vouchers (for):
- “Let’s shut down the head of the snake, the Department of Education. Take that $80 billion, put it in the hands of the parents across this country. This is the civil rights issue of our time. Allow any parent to choose where they send their kids to school.”
Common Core (for):
- “And then revive our national identity where every high school senior should have to pass the same civics test that, frankly, every immigrant, including my mother, had to pass in order to become a citizen of this country.”
Law enforcement (for):
- “And yes, we will back law enforcement, because we remember who we really are.”
Department of Education (against):
- “So, look, we have a crisis of achievement. Let’s shut down the head of the snake, the Department of Education”
Dealing with Crime (for):
- “More cops in the streets, who are on the streets able to do their jobs without looking over their shoulder for getting sued.”
- “Yes, we will stand for the rule of law. Yes, we will close the southern border where criminals are coming in every day. And yes, we will back law enforcement, because we remember who we really are. And that’s also how we address that mental health epidemic in the next generation that is directly leading to violent crime.”
Economic adjustment (for):
- “This isn’t that complicated, guys, unlock American energy, drill, frack, burn coal and embrace nuclear, put people back to work by no longer paying them more to stay at home, reform the US Fed, stabilize the US dollar, and go to war.”
Government Spending (against):
- “The only war that I will declare as US President will be the war on the federal administrative state that is the source of those toxic regulations acting like a wet blanket on the economy.”
China:
- “The Russia-China military alliance is the single greatest threat we face. Nobody in either political party is talking about it.”
- “The real threat we face today is communist China. And we are driving Russia further into China’s arms. “
Donald Trump (for):
- “President Trump, I believe was the best president of the 21st century.”
“And if people at home want to see a bunch of people blindly bashing Donald - Trump without an iota of vision for this country, they could just change the channel to MSNBC right now.”
Increase Ukraine’s fund (against):
- “I would not. And I think that this is disastrous, that we are protecting against an invasion across somebody else’s border, when we should use those same military resources to prevent across the invasion of our own southern border here in the United States of America.”
Chris Christie
International Involvement (for):
- “If we don’t stand up against this type of autocratic killing in the world, we will be next.”
Border Asylum of Undocumented Immigrants (against):
- “We have to have them detained. We have to make sure that they are not rewarded for having broken the law.”
- “The first thing we need to do is to stop any more from coming. That’s the first thing we need to do. Then, the next thing we need to do with the folks that are here is to, again, as we’ve talked about all night, tonight, we have to have one order in this country, we have to enforce the law. And what that means is to make sure that people who come here illegally are not rewarded for being here illegally.”
Government spending (against):
- “We cannot sit by any longer and allow the kind of spending that is going on in Washington. Because every dollar they spend is a dollar that these people are not allowed to spend on their children and their grandchildren. It’s robbing our country and it’s wrong.”
Donald Trump (against):
- “And I am not going to bow to anyone when we have a president of the United States who disrespects the Constitution.”
Labor Unions (against): - “I started this in 2010 by going right after the teachers unions in New Jersey and drove them down to an all-time low popularity rating because they’re putting themselves before our kids”
Dealing with crime (for):
- “So, what a President Christie would do is appoint an Attorney General who would instruct each of the 93 US attorneys that they are to take over the prosecution of violent crime in every one of those cities that are failing to do so. We have plenty of room in the federal prisons to lock up these violent criminals and clean up what’s going on all across this country in these individual cities.”
China (for):
- “We better make that priority one in our conversations with China and to try to straighten that relationship out because if we don’t, we’re going to lose more and more of our citizens.”
Economic adjustment (for):
- “Truth and accountability are the things we need to do to fight waste.”
Dealing with drug cartels (for):
- “Yes, it’s important that we secure the border, very important as I just said, but China is sending these chemicals to these drug cartels for them to create the fentanyl that is killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens. The Chinese are engaging in an act of war against us killing our citizens. We better make that priority one in our conversations with China and to try to straighten that relationship out because if we don’t, we’re going to lose more and more of our citizens.”
Gun Control Legislation (against):
- “Secondly, what we need to make sure that each and every one of these criminals understand is that the laws apply to everybody, and when Hunter Biden fills out a fake application, a false application, for a gun permit, and then is facing a 10-year mandatory minimum, which was mandated by legislation sponsored by his father, and then you have a Justice Department that walks away from those charges. We’re telling people that the law doesn’t apply to everybody. “
Increase Ukraine Fund (for):
- “This is — this is the Vladimir Putin — this is the Vladimir Putin, who Donald Trump called brilliant and a genius. If we don’t stand up against this type of autocratic killing in the world, we will be next.”
Tim Scott
Abortion (against):
- “We cannot let states like California, New York, and Illinois have abortions on-demand up until the day of birth. That is immoral. It is unethical. It is wrong.”
Government Spending (against):
- “We can stop [inflation] by turning the spigot off at Washington, sending the money back to the states, and allowing the decisions to be made at their own houses.”
Border Asylum of Undocumented Immigrants (against):
- “Let’s – let’s fire the 87,000 IRS agents and hire or double the number of Border Patrol agents.”
LGBT Equality (against):
- “…if God made you a man, you play sports against men.”
Worker Unions (against):
- “[Teacher unions] are standing in the door house [sic] of our kids, locking them into failing schools and locking them out of the greatest future they can have.”
Environmental regulations (against):
- “If we want the environment to be better and we all do, the best thing to do is to bring our jobs home from China.”
Mike Pence’s acts on January the 6th (for):
- “Absolutely, he did the right thing, number one.”
Economic Adjustment (for):
- “If we create 10 million new jobs in my Made in America Plan, we will have a better economy and a better environment.”
Dealing with crime (for):
- “That should be the priority of this government. And, as the next president of the United States, I will make that border wall complete.”
MIKE PENCE
International Involvement (for):
- “He is a dictator and a murderer, and the United States of America needs to stand against authoritarianism…”
Police Funding (for):
- “What we need is [a] strong commitment to law enforcement.”
Abortion (against):
- “And I promise you, as President of the United States, the American people will have a champion for life in the Oval Office.”
School Choice Vouchers (for):
- “And when I was governor, we doubled the size of the largest school choice program in America, and we will give school choice to every family in America when I’m in the White House.”
Department of Education (against):
- “And we’re going to close the federal Department of Education, block grant all that…”
Dealing with drug cartels (for):
- “And I want to promise you, as president of the United States of America, I will engage Mexico the exact same way, and we will partner with the Mexican military, and we will hunt down and destroy the cartels that are claiming lives in the United States of America.”
Donald Trump (against):
- “But no one’s above the law. And President Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence that every American is entitled to. And we will make sure and extend that to him, that the American people deserve to know that the President asked me in his request that I reject or return votes unilaterally, power that no Vice President in American history had ever exercised or taken. He asked me to put him over the Constitution. And I chose the Constitution. And I always will.”
Increase Ukraine fund (for):
- “I want to let the Ukrainians fight and drive and the Russians back out —”
International involvement (for):
- “Yeah. Well, let me — let me be clear, anybody that thinks that we can’t solve the problems here in the United States, and be the leader of the free world has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on Earth”
Economic adjustment (for):
- “I will put our nation back on the path to growth and prosperity and restore fiscal responsibility,”
ASA HUTCHINSON
Common Core (for):
- “As president of the United States, I will make sure we go from 51 percent of our schools offering computer science to every school in rural areas and urban areas offering computer science for the benefit of our kids, and we can compete with China in terms of technology.”
Border Asylum of Undocumented Immigrants (against):
- “Cooperation makes a difference. We cannot be successful going against the cartel unless we bring in Mexico as a partner. We have to use economic pressure to accomplish that. President Obrador has not been helpful, and we have to use economic pressure that this administration is not using.”
Government Spending (against):
- “We need somebody who can actually constrain the growth of the federal government, that can actually reduce the size.”
Abortion (against):
- “I’ve signed 30 pro-life pieces of legislation while I was governor.”
Donald Trump (against):
- “And so obviously, I’m not going to support somebody who’s been convicted of a serious felony, or who has this is disqualified under our Constitution.”
Dealing with drug cartels (for):
- “One, enforce the law when it comes to crime. Secondly, let’s deal with the challenge of fentanyl…”
Dealing with crime (for):
- “One, enforce the law when it comes to crime..”
China:
- “We have to compete with China. I built computer science education. We led the nation in computer science education, going from 1,100 students to 23,000 students taking it. This is how you compete with China.”
Economic adjustment (for):
- “As president, I’ll bring out the best of America in terms of individual responsibility, building our economy..”
Doug Burgum
Abortion (against):
- “…I’m a pro-life governor of a very pro-life state…. But I am on the record and I stand behind that we should not have a federal abortion ban. We should not. …I say that we follow the Constitution, and this is returned to the states. This is where it should be.”
Government Spending (against):
- “…Biden’s energy policies, which are raising the cost of every product you buy, not just the gasoline at the pump.”
Green New Deal (against):
- “…we’re paying too much for energy in our state right, in country right now. But part of the reason why is because the Biden’s policies on energy. We’ve got a plan right now, the $1.2 trillion of Green New Deal spending buried in the inflation creation act is something that is just subsidizing China.”
China:
- “China is the number one threat to our country.”
Mike Pence’s acts on January the 6th (for):
- “Mike Pence did the right thing on January 6th…”
Department of Education (against):
- “With innovation, not regulation, I would get rid of the Department of Education”
Dealing with Crime (for):
- “No one ever asked the question of, what — what about the crime wave in small towns… One thing I think this country could use is somebody in the White House that understands small town values because that’s our road back to get this country on track again.”
Dealing with drug cartels (for):
- “We have got North Dakota troops down there flying night helicopter missions from San Diego to the Gulf Coast trying to stop these transnational criminal organizations.”
Economic adjustment (for):
- “I’ll get this economy sprinting, not crawling like it is right now.”