Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump and businessman and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy attend a campaign event sponsored by conservative group Turning Point.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Washington: Entrepreneur-turned-politician Vivek Ramaswamy on Thursday opposed the provision of early voting and instead called for a single-day nationwide voting and making an identity card compulsory for voters' identification.
“I'll be honest with you. I don't love early voting. I never have. I believe we need single-day voting on Election Day as a national holiday with paper ballots and government-issued ID to match the voter file. That's what I believe. That's what Donald Trump believes,” Ramaswamy said at an election rally in the battle ground state of Arizona that was addressed by Trump.
“Let me tell you something. You got to play by the rules we have in order to change the rules to what they should be. So I'm asking you, as Republicans, we may not like early voting. Get out there and do it anyway because we have an election to win and a country to save,” he said.
“Our founding fathers, they made a sacrifice. There were 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence. What happened to them? You might ask yourself exactly. Twelve of them had their homes ransacked and burned to the ground by the British. Five of them were captured by the British and tortured until their deaths. Nine of them died in the American Revolution. Three more of them had their own kids die in the American Revolution,” he said.
“They didn't do it for them. They did it for us, so we could be here 250 years later enjoying the blessings of liberty in the greatest nation known to the history of mankind. And we're not about to squander it for them. 2024 is our 1776, and I mean it when I say this. I think Donald Trump is the George Washington of our moment,” Ramaswamy said.
“They shot at George Washington when he crossed the Delaware. They missed when they tried for Donald Trump too. This time around, we're not messing this up for our country. And I'm asking you, you guys do your part. Donald Trump's going to do his,” he said.
“We will make sure that our best days are still ahead of us, that we restore that American dream, that we restore that belief in the impossible, that we are the unafraid, the explorers, the pioneers who nobody was going to stop. That is what won us the American Revolution. That is what reunited us after the Civil War. That is what won us two world wars and the Cold War. That is what still gives hope to the free world,” he said.
“And if we can revive that dream over group identity and victimhood and grievance, then nobody in the world, not a nation, not a corporation, not a virus, not China, and certainly not Kamala Harris or Tim Walz is going to defeat us. That is what American exceptionalism is all about,” Ramaswamy said.