Congressman meets with Ramona groups
Congressman Duncan D. Hunter made the rounds in Ramona Monday, April 25, first speaking to Intermountain Republican Women Federated, then having lunch with Ramona real estate agents, and lastly meeting with members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3783.
With California’s presidential primary approaching on June 7, Hunter, a Republican representing the 50th Congressional District, explained three areas he is passionate about and are the reasons he is endorsing Donald Trump for the party’s nomination.
Border security, national security and trade “are the three major things in my mind that the government does for the American people that they can’t do for themselves,” he said.
Securing the border is a top priority, said Hunter.
“That will set us back on the right path going forward for the next 100 years, if you secure the border,” he said.
As for national security, Hunter said Trump or presidential candidate Ted Cruz would do better than President Barack Obama.
“In fact Hillary (Clinton) beats Obama,” he added.
One of his fears, the congressman said, is that an extremist group will bring a weapon of mass destruction across the border or somehow into the United States and the government will not be able to attribute it to anyone and will not be able to respond.
Hunter talked about the loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and said tens of millions of jobs between California and Florida are gone, calling it “total Wall Street corporatization.” He said the U.S. is on an unfair playing field when it comes to trade and gave an analogy: When the U.S. trades with other countries, it’s basically like “we start the football game with about 30 points down.”
“Wall Street is a big backer and proponent of anybody non-Trump because Trump hates Wall Street,” he said.
The country needs leaders who will stand up to Wall Street, he added.
“That’s one of the reasons I like Trump. He is beholden to no one,” said Hunter.
The middle class is shrinking in San Diego, like other areas in the country, he noted, and said he would like to see what would happen if a business person got in the White House. The congressman said he would be happy if Trump or Cruz won the election, but not Clinton.
“In the end, I think Trump can beat her,” he said.
Hunter opened it up to questions and was asked about a “60 Minutes” episode on “dialing for dollars,” about members of Congress spending about 30 hours a week on the phone fundraising. The segment featured a Florida congressman, who said he was told by his party that he had to raise $18,000 a day. Members of both parties must raise money, according to the segment.
“I don’t do that,” said Hunter. “My principles and ideology and the way I vote matches my district almost exactly, so I don’t have to convince people.”
Hunter’s next stop was meeting with real estate agents and presenting a Certificate of Congressional Recognition and an American flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol to Chris Anderson, president of the San Diego Association of Realtors last year.
At the VFW, Hunter, who served as a lieutenant in the Marine Corps and was deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan, talked about the U.S. role in the Middle East and the lack of qualified leadership in the Obama administration. If the U.S. goes to war it needs to “crush” the enemy, he said.
“Counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism is not war,” said Hunter.
Note: On May 3, Ted Cruz announced he was dropping out of the Republican presidential race.