Vivek Ramaswamy Suspends 2024 Presidential Campaign Transcript

(Singing).

USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. USA. Guys, thank you for being here tonight. I want to first thank our incredible team that has worked their tails off for the last year and the last month. Here in Iowa all of you volunteers, you have lifted us up from, what, February of last year when we got into this. Nobody knew who we were, nobody knew what we were up to, and together we have created a movement that I think is going to carry our nation to the next level. And for that, all of the patriots across this state, across this country, everybody watching on the live stream, we are so grateful to you and I promise you this, we are just getting started in leading this movement to our future. (01:00) Now, this is a campaign founded on speaking the truth, not just when it's easy, but when it's hard. Not just to the Democrats, but to our own side. And not just to other campaigns and candidacies, but to ours. And so I will stick to the truth tonight. The first hard truth, and this one's hard for me, I got to admit this, but we've looked at it every which way, and I think it is true that we did not achieve the surprise that we wanted to deliver tonight. And I think that that's just a hard fact that we're going to have to accept as a campaign. (01:45) And the question then is, what do we do that is right for our country? And so Apoorva and I, we actually didn't make this contingency plan before everybody told us to. We said, "No, we're not doing that." But we talked about it tonight, we took a little bit of time in our apartment in Des Moines before coming here to make some hard choices. And I wanted to make a couple of announcements tonight to get the business out of the way, and then I want to tell you where we're going. (02:16) As of this moment we are going to suspend this presidential campaign, and this is going to have to be ... There is no path for me to be the next president, absent things that we don't want to see happen in this country. And I think that I am very worried for our country. I think we are skating on thin ice as a nation. We have done everything in our part to make and done ... Every one of us in this room has done our part to save this country. And I am so proud of every one of you who have lifted us up, but we're a campaign founded on the truth. And so that's why we've made that decision today. (03:00) And I'm also making the decision that this has to be an America First candidate in that White House. As I've said since the beginning, there are two America First candidates in this race. And earlier tonight I called Donald Trump to tell him that I congratulated him on his victory. And now, going forward, he will have my full endorsement for the presidency. And I think we're going to do the right thing for this country. (03:27) And so I'm going to ask you to follow me in taking our America First movement to the next level. It did not begin in 2016, it began in 1776. And for the next journey of this race, we are going to make sure that our movement is actually the one that actually leads and saves this country in the next step. And as for this movement founded on truth, America First 2.0, we're just getting started. That doesn't end today, that begins today, actually. (04:00) So we're just getting warmed up. Apoorva and I, we're not going anywhere. We are in this for the future of our country. We've lived the phase of our life. This country has allowed us to live an American Dream that my parents, who were here with us earlier, helping take care of our little boys, they never imagined when they came to this country 40 years ago. And now we have lived an American Dream that we want to pass on to these kids and their generation. (04:29) And so the phase of our life where we were getting ahead for ourselves, making a good life for our family, this country's already given us that. This next chapter of our life and the next chapter of our journey and the next few years, and even the rest of this year, is about giving back to this country to create a country that I'm worried for. But if we all do our part, and I've been asking that of you at every step of the way, asking patriots across this state and across this country to do their part, I promised you if you did your part, you have that we will do ours. (05:03) And we're going to do our part now going forward to make sure that America First lives on, to make sure that Donald Trump is successful as the next President of the United States, to make sure that it isn't some other puppet they trot out to make sure that they steal this country out from underneath us. We're not going to let that happen. We're going to take this movement to the next level. And I think after that, it's another 250 years and then some still left ahead of us. And if you all continue to join us in this journey, I'm going to ask you to do that, we're just getting warmed up. If you all do your part, and we're going to do ours, our best days as a nation still will as yet be ahead of us. (05:46) So thank you guys for coming today. God bless you and your families, and may God bless our United States of America. Appreciate that guys. Thank you. Thank you. (05:57) Yes, yes, yes.

[inaudible 00:06:01] take on 75% of the bureaucracy.

We better be ready to. We better be ready to.

[inaudible 00:06:08] and do that as president for [inaudible 00:06:12].

It's what needs to be done, Kathleen, in this country. It's what needs to be done. We need to put an end ... Everything that I stood for, I said you this in the beginning of the race, we'd rather speak the truth and lose this election than to win by playing some fake game of political snakes and ladders. (06:28) And so here's the thing about me. Whatever it is in the next phase that we do, I'm not going to be changing what I say to dance to any tune other than the one that's the best for this country. And so you have my word on that. Everything that we stood for in this campaign, shutting down 75% of the federal bureaucracy, actually standing for three branches of government rather than four, reviving our missing national purpose as Americans, filling that void in the mind of the next generation that is lost, we will continue on that journey and make sure we accomplish that in whatever best way we can. (07:04) To be honest with you, the best way I could have done it is as your next president, and that's why we made the choice we did for the last year. But that's not our choice, that doesn't belong to us, that belongs to the people of this country. And in some deeper sense, it belongs to God, actually. And so we will make sure that whatever I do, Kathleen, I cannot be your next president unless the people of this country vote for it, but whatever we do, we will do our part to make sure everything that we have told you we're going to do for this country. We will do everything in our power, we will stop at nothing. We will not hold ourselves back, everything we can while speaking the truth at every step. I'm going to work hard to make sure that yes, we protect the borders of this nation, that yes, we shut down the deep state that is the threat to our future existence of our nation, that we revive national pride in these kids and their generation. (07:56) So everything we said still stands. We're going to do everything in our power to make it so. I could have done it best as your next president, but the people of this country, the choice belongs to them and we're going to respect the choice that they make. And I'm going to ask you to respect the choice that we make in actually leading this forward. So we love you back. We love all of you for being part of this movement. (08:20) Tomorrow night I expect, we have some ... We might actually just might just get to spend a night sleeping in our bed in Ohio for the first time in a long time. We might just be heading there right from here, and I think that's a decision we just made. But tomorrow we're likely, I'm going to appear with Donald Trump at a rally in New Hampshire to lay out what I see and what we see for the future of the country. And you know what? We're going to do our part to save this country. And I'm going to ask you guys to celebrate not the end of this campaign, but the beginning of the next phase of our movement. (08:53) So may our best days be ahead of us, guys. God bless you and your families, and we love you all and everything you've been done. And we're not going anywhere, guys, so thank you. And you know what? Let's turn on the music and keep this party going. Thank you guys. God bless you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, guys.

(Singing).