During Wednesday night’s Republican primary debate, Vivek Ramaswamy defended statements he made about arming Taiwanese citizens, noting that the Second Amendment has preserved the U.S. from invasion by “foreign autocrats.”
The moderator quoted Ramaswamy saying the way to keep China’s Xi Jinping from invading Taiwan is to “open a branch of the NRA in Taiwan and put an AR-15 in the hands of every family and train them how to use it — that will give Xi a taste of American exceptionalism.”
Ramaswamy responded by saying he stands by the statement.
He then went on to say the next president “needs to make crystal clear … the U.S. will absolutely defend Taiwan,” suggesting the clarity of commitment will provide deterrence.
He then referenced the Second Amendment, saying, “I also do believe the Second Amendment is a critical way of preventing foreign autocrats from being able” to invade another country. Someone in the audience hissed when Ramaswamy talked about the Second Amendment deterring invasion, and he responded, “It’s worked in America, why wouldn’t it work in Taiwan?”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
