{"id":73977,"date":"2023-08-24T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T14:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/08\/24\/gop-hopefuls-debate-china-ukraine-troops-at-us-southern-border\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:39:13","slug":"gop-hopefuls-debate-china-ukraine-troops-at-us-southern-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2023\/08\/24\/gop-hopefuls-debate-china-ukraine-troops-at-us-southern-border\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP hopefuls debate China, Ukraine, troops at US southern border"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The first Republican presidential debate<\/a> held in Wisconsin on Wednesday night featured wide-ranging discussions on the national security threat posed by China<\/a>, the continued American involvement in Ukraine<\/a>, and the possibility of sending more active duty troops to the U.S. border with Mexico <\/a>to help with immigration work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are excerpts of the major points of discussion on military personnel and foreign policy priorities from the candidates:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
U.S. Northern Command is providing military support to the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to secure the southern border of the United States, 2018. (USAF photo\/Airman First Class Daniel A. Hernandez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Military deployments to the U.S. southern border<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis:<\/b><\/a> <\/b>\u201cI\u2019m not going to send troops to Ukraine \u2014 I\u2019m going to send them to our southern border. When these drug pushers are bringing fentanyl across the border, that\u2019s going to be the last thing they do. We\u2019re going to use force and we\u2019re going to leave them stone cold dead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moderator: \u201cSo as president, would you support sending U.S. special forces over the border into Mexico to take out fentanyl labs to take out drug cartel operations?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desantis: <\/b>\u201cYes. And I will do it on day one. Here\u2019s the thing. The cartels are killing tens of thousands of our fellow citizens \u2026 We have to re-establish the rule of law, and we have to defend our people. The president of the United States has got to use all available powers as commander-in-chief to protect our country and to protect the people. So, when they\u2019re coming across, yes, we\u2019re going to use lethal force. Yes, we reserve the right to operate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2666<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Vice President Pence: <\/b><\/a>\u201cWe got the Mexicans to deploy their National Guard to our southern border as never before. And I want to promise you as president of the United States of America, I will engage Mexico the exact same way. We will partner with the Mexican military, and we will hunt down and destroy the cartels that are claiming lives in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2666<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moderator:<\/b> \u201cWould you authorize lethal force along [the southern U.S.] border?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson:<\/b><\/a> <\/b>\u201cLethal force used by Border Patrol law enforcement as needed to protect the border? Absolutely. But when you look at the military, the military has to be used for intelligence gathering purposes \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe cannot be successful going against the [drug] cartels unless we bring in Mexico as a partner. We have to use economic pressure to accomplish that. [Mexican President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez] Obrador has not been helpful, and we have to use economic pressure that this administration is not using. The rule of law has to matter on both sides. This is critical. The military has to be limited in its use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A detail of female U.S. Marine Corps recruits stand in platoon order outside the Marine Corps Recruit Depot pool after swim training, Wednesday, June 28, 2023, in Parris Island, South Carolina. (Stephen B. Morton\/Marine Corps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mandatory military service<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Moderator: \u201cGovernor DeSantis, as President, would you support some mandatory military service for all Americans?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desantis:<\/b> \u201cI think it should be voluntary. I\u2019m somebody that volunteered to serve inspired by Sept. 11. And I deployed to Iraq, alongside U.S. Navy SEALs in places like Ramadi, and it\u2019s something that I think has taught me that when you go in that type of environment, anything you have your personal agenda, you check it at the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou go there and it\u2019s about focusing on the mission, above all else, and guys come together and they get it done. And that\u2019s how I would view being the president of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A Ukrainian soldier covers his ears while firing a mortar at Russian positions on the frontline near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, May 29, 2023. (Efrem Lukatsky\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Pence:<\/b> \u201cAnybody that thinks that we can\u2019t solve 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. We\u2019ve done both. We\u2019ve been the leader of the free world and the arsenal of democracy for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Reagan Doctrine years ago made it clear we said if you\u2019re willing to fight the communists on your soil, we\u2019ll give you the means to fight it there, so our troops don\u2019t have to fight. If we give Putin this land, it\u2019s not going to be too long before he rolls across a NATO border. And frankly, our men and women of our armed forces are going to have to go and fight him. I want to let the Ukrainians fight and drive through him and have the Russians back down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2666<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley<\/b><\/a>:<\/b> \u201cThe American president needs to have moral clarity. They need to know the difference between right and wrong. They need to know the difference between good and evil. When you look at the situation with Russia and Ukraine, here you have a pro-American country that was invaded by a thug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo when you want to talk about what has been given to Ukraine, less than 3.5% of our defense budget has been given to Ukraine \u2026 We have to know that Ukraine is the first line of defense for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2666<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desantis:<\/b> \u201cI will have Europe pull their weight [in Ukraine]. Now they\u2019re not doing it now. I think our support should be contingent on them doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2666<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie:<\/b><\/a> \u201cI went to Ukraine because I wanted to see for myself what Vladimir Putin\u2019s army was doing to free Ukrainian people. I want you all to look around this arena tonight and imagine that every one of these seats was filled. And if every one of them was filled, there would still be 2,500 more children outside to make the over 20,000 who have been abducted, stolen, ripped from their mothers and fathers and brought back to Russia to be programmed to fight their own families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have gouged out people\u2019s eyes, cut off their ears and shot people in the back of the head. They\u2019re gone into those homes and raped the daughters and the wives who were left as widows and orphans. This is the same Vladimir Putin who Donald Trump called brilliant and a genius. If we don\u2019t stand up against this type of autocratic killing we will be next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2666<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy: <\/b>\u201cThe reality is that today, [Ukraine] is not a priority for the United States of America. And I think that the same people who took us into the Iraq War, the same people who took us into the Vietnam War, you cannot end it. You\u2019re not starting another no-win war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd I do not want to get to the point where we\u2019re sending our military resources abroad when we could be better using them here at home to protect our own borders. protect the homeland. That will be my top priority for protecting this homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"In
In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, the guided-missile destroyer Chung-Hoon observes a Chinese navy ship conduct what it called an “unsafe\u201d Chinese maneuver in the Taiwan Strait, Saturday, June 3, 2023. (MCS1 Andre T. Richard\/U.S. Navy via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

China<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Moderator: \u201cMr. Ramaswamy, you would not support an increase of funding to Ukraine?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaswamy:<\/b> \u201cI would not \u2026 we are driving further into China\u2019s hands. The Russia-China alliance is the single greatest threat we face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe USSR does not exist anymore. The real threat we face today is Communist China, and we are driving Russia further into China\u2019s arms. The Russia-China military alliance is the single greatest threat we face. Nobody in either political party is talking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2666<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum:<\/b><\/a> \u201cThe Biden administration is a complete fail \u2026 What we need to do is not have more meetings, not press releases. Something that would send a lot more of a message than a press release is actually harpoon missiles. We need anti-ship missiles on Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way that you have a war that never starts, which is the goal, the way you have peace through strength is that you actually have strength. You actually have deterrence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2666<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christie:<\/b> \u201cOn this fentanyl issue with China: We can\u2019t take our eye off of that ball. Yes, it\u2019s important that we secure the [southern] border, very important. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 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\u2019t, we\u2019re going to lose more and more of our citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several candidates at the first Republican debate held Wednesday advocated sending more active-duty troops to work along the U.S. border with 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