Communicator, americas 40th commander in chief. He railed against big government. The nine most terrifying words of the english language are, im from the government and im here to help. And sought peace through strength. Tear down this wall. 40 years after reagans landslide reelection, the Republican Party faces critical questions what does it mean to be a conservative . We fight for the truth. We are not going to worry about what the left and the media say about us. What is the key to a thriving economy . Its innovation, not regulation. America can do for anyone what shes done for me. We will stop the spending, we will stop the borrowing, we will stop the earmark. What is meshs role in the world americas role in the world . We need to build a military fitted to the widening challenges in an ever more dangerous world. Sometimes you avoid war by showing. Country faces even more challenges, would reagan even recognize the countryspecific friendsatfoxnews. Com in which we now live . Country in which we now live. The country converging in california to chart a new path for the grand old party. Now is the time for choosing. [ applause ]. Welcome to the second Republican Debate of the 2024 primary live from the Ronald Reagan president ial library in simi valley, california. Were inside the spectacular air force 1 pavilion where the stage is set for a show down. Stuart im stuart varney, a fox business and i am thrilled to be sitting alongside by comoderators Fox News Channel dana perino and ilia calderon, univision. Good evening. Ilia thank you, thank you, stuart. President reagan famously described america adds a shining city on a hill and tonight seven candidates will make the case they should be the one to lead that city into a brighter tomorrow. But first, they have to convince you, the voter. Please allow me to welcome our Spanish Speaking audience. [ speaking Foreign Language ] dana and good evening. S lets meet the candidates that have qualified and chosen to be on this stage the only thing. They are positioned by the order they rank in the polls with the highest polling candidate in the middle. Standing center stage, florida governor, ron desantis. [ applause ]. Stuart entrepreneur vivek ramaswamy. And former South Carolina governor nikki haley. Inland and Orange CountySouth Carolina senator tim scott. And former new jersey governor chris christie. Dana on the wing tonight former Vice President mike pence. And north dakota governor doug burgum. Stuart questions on a wide variety of issues and primary voters and candidates get one minute to answer and 30 seconds to respond if singled out. When their time runs out, well all hear this [ bell tolling ]. Stuart we have a holt of ground to cover so please keep it civil civilized. Dana lets get going. Were in a sparkes sunny place tonight designed to reflect the very nature and character of Ronald Reagan. Its a place that makes you proud to be an american. Yet today our nation is drowning in division, and incivility. Ilia voters say they dread the 2024 election and find politics exhausting. Two in three americans think the country is on the wrong track. And three in four say the economy is not in good shape. Stuart prices are up 18 since 2020. More than half of the u. S. Population has little access to child care. 85 of americans say their personal finances are a source of stress. Dana americans want to believe a leader who says you can follow me. Ive got you. Dont worry. President biden is trying to do that with bidenomics. Stuart and yesterday he joined the picket lines where auto workers are demanding more wages and job security. Senator scott, you recently reacted by praising Ronald Reagan for firing air Traffic Controllers in the 1980s saying, you strike, youre fired. Would you fire thousands of striking auto workers today, senator . Obviously the president of the United States cannot fire anybody in the private sector, however, we should look back at the first bill in congress under joe biden. The first bill had 86 billion for the Union Pensions because they continue to overpromise yet underdeliver. One of the challenges we have with the current negotiations is that they want four day french workweeks, but more money. They want more benefits working fewer hours. That is simply not going to stand. I sat in the finance Committee Hearing when a widow came before the committee whose promised mentions from the unions, 4,000 a month. Unfortunately it had been cut to 1,000 a month. We must make sure that we honor the commitments that we make and one of the ways we do that, do not overpromise and then underdeliver and leave the taxpayers on the hook. Ill say this, joe biden should not be on the picket line. He should be on the southern border working to close our southern border because it is unsafe, wide open, and insecure leading to the deaths of 70,000 americans in the last 12 months because of fentanyl. It is devastating. Every county in america is now a border county because fentanyl has devastated americans in every single state. I will also say 6 million illegal crossings since joe biden has taken office. And he eliminated title 42. The one thing he should do is finish the wall, reinstate title 42, and get the job done. Dana i can promise you were going to have a lot of questions on the border and immigration but in the meantime, we want to talk about the economy and jobs and especially want to talk about this strike for just a moment more. Mr. Ramaswamy, youve said you really empathize with the strikers. Youre standing next to senator scott and do agree with what he said or i did hes wrong . I agree with some of what he said for sure. I like the spirit of it. Ill say i dont have a lot of patients for the union bosses and thats where he and i have a common view. I have a lot of sympathy for the workers however. People are going through real hardship in this country. Ive been through hardship growing up. My father stared down layoffs at ge under jack welchs tenure at the ge plant in evendale, ohio. My mom had to work overtime in Nursing Homes in southwest ohio to make ends meet and pay off our home loan. I understand that hardship is not a choice. But victim hood is a choice. We choose to be victory yo victn the United States of america. If i was giving advice to the workers, i would say go picket in front of the white house in washington dc. Thats where the protest needs to be. Disastrous economic policies that have driven up prices and driven up Interest Rates and Mortgage Rates at the same time wages remaining stagnant. What we need is to deliver Economic Growth in this country. Unlock american energy, drill, frack, burn coal, embrace nuclear energy, put people back to work by no longer paying them more money to stay at home. Stabilize the u. S. Dollar itself and rescind a majority of those unconstitutional federal regulations that are hampering our economy. That is how we unleash american exceptionalism and thats not a democratic vision or a republican vision, that is an American Vision that we embrace Economic Growth and capitalism is still the best system known to man to lift us up from poverty and we should not apologize for it. Thats what it means to be an american. [ applause ]. Stuart together the ceos of general motors, ford, and stellantis make 336 times the number of rank and file workers. Thats just part of a wilder income ine wider income inequality in the country and richest 1 controls one fifth of all income. Vice president pence, last week you said you side with American Workers, but you also support how these companies operate. Which is it . Well, thank you for the question. I want to thank univision and fox business for assembling such a wonderful forrum. Look, i do disagree with something tim scott said. Joe biden doesnt belong on the picket line. He belongs on the unemployment line. I mean, look, im from the second leading manufacturing state in the country per capita. I was governor of the state of indiana. We brought 12,000 factories back to america during our administration. I know something about manufacturing and i got to tell you while the union bosses are talking about class wa warfare d disparity in wages, i have to tell you i really believe whats driving that is bidenomic has failed. Wages are not keeping up with inflation. Auto workers and all American Workers are feeling it. Families are struggling in this economy. Joe bidens Green New Deal agenda is good for beijing and bad for detroit. We ought to repeal the Green New Deal, get rid of the mandates and subsidies that are driving american gasoline, Automotive Manufacturing into the graveyard, and beyond that also as president of the United States, ill be standing with workers all across america and ill be standing for the right to work of every american to join a union or not join a union as they decide. Stuart senator scott. Care to respond . Theres no doubt that joe biden needs to be fired, thats why im running for president. I look forward to being the next president of the United States and i will also say i know america can do for anyone what shes done for me. Its why were focusing on restoring hope, creating opportunities, and protecting the america we all love. Growing umm in the single parent household, i wondered if the American Dream would work for the kid in the inner city. Ive got good news for every single child, whether youre in the inner cities of chicago or the rural parts of iowa, america and the dream, it is alive, it is well, and it is healthy. God bless these United States of america. Stuart Governor Haley, you raised your hand . Yeah, i think we need to look at exactly what happened. Biden showed up on that picket line, but why are those workers actually there . Its because of all the spending that he has pushed through in the economy thats raised the inflation so when you look at the fact that we are paying higher gas prices, higher grocery prices, 7,000 more a year for families. What we need to do is i came out with a economic plan, eliminate the gas and diesel tax so they have more money in their pocket, focus on going after Middle America and cutting taxes for Middle America and collapsing those brackets. Lets get rid of unfair distortions like the state and local tax that they give to wealthy people in blue states and not in red states, and lets make sure we make the Small Business taxes permanent. They only made those temporary. They made the Corporate Taxes permanent. Lets focus on what it fak takeo get more cash in the pocket of workers and well be able to deal with strikes like this and not sitting on the picket line. Ilia thank you, we have other questions about the economy. Allow me to i have to jump in because were missing the point and every other network is mizing the point. The reason why people are striking in detroit is because joe bidens interference with Capital Markets and with free markets. The subsidies, were subsidizing the auto makers and the cars and a particular kind of car. Not every kind of car but particularly electric vehicles. When you decide that were going to take all of your taxpayer moneys and take a billion dollars, subsidize a certain type of vehicle and the batteries come from kai that and china controls 85 of Rare Earth Minerals and theyre called rare earth because theyre measured in parts per million and china moving hundreds of pounds of earth in africa and destroying the planet to make a battery thats in a car subsidized here. Thats why theyre striking because they need twothirds less workers to build an electric car. Joe biden this strike is at joe bidens feet. Ilia were going to talk about the economy but allow me to followup question to governor christie. The government will shut down if congress does not reach a deal by the end of this week. Vice president pence warns that politics of trumps populous prodigies like mr. Ramaswamy are a road to the demise. Should voters blame the republican s . They should blame everyone. Theyve been sent down to do the job and theyve been failing for a very long time. Lets be honest with the voters. During the trump administration, they ad 7 trillion in National Debt. Now the Biden Administration put another 5 trillion on and counting. They have failed and theyre in the spot theyre in now because none of them are willing to tell the truth, none of them are willing to take on the difficult issues and they want to kick the can down the road. The inflation that nikki spoke about is absolutely right and caused by government spending, and thats why people all across this country are suffering tonight. Yet we dont get any answers because joe biden hides in his basement and wont answer as to why hes raising the debt the way hes done and donald trump hides behind the walls of his golf clubs and wont show up here to answer questions like all the rest of us are up here to answer. He put 7 trillion on the debt, he should be in this room to answer those questions for the people you talk about who are suffering. If the government closes, and if the government closes, its the blame it is to the blame of everyone in washington dc who has failed to do their job and just plays to the grand stand. Ilia next question for Governor Desantis. Can we please respect the time. Governor desantis, you havent spoken, please. The people in washington are shutting down the American Dream with their reckless behavior. They borrowed, they printed, they spent and now youre paying more for everything. They are the reason for that. They are shut down our National Sovereignty by allowing our border to be wide open so please spare me the crocodile tears for these people. They need to change whats going on . Wheres joe biden . Completely missing in action from leadership. Who else is missing in action . Donald trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record where they added 7. 8 trillion to the debt, that set the stage for the inflation that we have. Now, i can tell you as governor of florida, we cut taxes, we ran surpluses, weve paid down over 25 of our state debt, and i vetoed wasteful spending coming to the bill and as your president , when they send me a bloating spending bill and ill take out the veto pen and send it right back to them. [ multiple people talking ]. Dana a question thats on the minds of a lot of moms and dads and youre think ago complete the catch it and child care costs topping 10,000 per month and some families spending up to half of income on child care. Theyre having to decide is it worth it for me to work or does it not make sense for me financially . 24 three days the pandemic era funding will send and 70,000 day cares could close. Theres an effort to broaden eligibility for child care assistance and that fell apart last year and for the moms and dads out there who are worried, what can you tell them if you werent able to get it through the congress, how could you do it as president . One of the things i did as a member of the congress was to make sure that we protected the head start programs around the country giving people the opportunity to pick and choose the place that they send their children. The challenges that we see today under the Biden Administration is that the cost for day care has gone over 15,000 per child. The build back broker plan, he called it a build back better plan, it was going up to 29,000. The way we fix that problem is to make sure that we actually cut taxes and give more americans their money back. When i help write the tax cuts and jobs act, we actually lowered a single mothers it taxes by 70 on the federal level. For dual income house cold by household by 60 . We went a step further and doubled the Child Tax Credit card and made it refunneledable and by doing that, more refundable and more parents had the resources to take care of their family. One thing we need to do is let the American People keep their money. When that happens, the greatest opportunities rise from the as ashes. Dana 15 seconds then were going to the border. Ilia mischaracterized part of my view. The Artificial Division is unhelpful in the party. Its not between the republicans on the stage for the real divide. In the Reagan Library, these are good people on the stain. The real divide is between the majority of us in this country that love the United States of america and share our founding ideals free speech, meritocracy, the idea you get ahead in the country not by the color of your skin but the content of your character and the fringe minority in the Democrat Party that has a choke hold over that party, thats the real divide and thats the populous debate is artificial and we need to unit this country. Dana we are going to talk about immigration. Ilia. Were going on. We had all these questions, were going to get to you and come back to you. Theres a lot of time. You asked about chil