Former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore wasn’t invited to participate in the CNN debate at the Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, California on Wednesday night, but he still had plenty of thoughts about what happened onstage.
In an exclusive interview, the 16th Republican presidential candidate said he could have added to the debate, particularly on the economy and foreign policy.
The former Virginia governor said: “I thought I could add more depth to and thinking about foreign policy than was displayed [as well as] adding depth as to what tax policies would be needed to grow the economy.”
However, Gilmore noted: “In all fairness, there wasn’t a lot of time for anyone to speak.”
When the 15 candidates on stage – four in the first event, 11 in the second – did speak, he said “there was too much speechifying” while everyone was talking “in soundbites”.
Gilmore, who served as governor of Virginia from 1998 to 2002, had very specific criticisms regarding the ways in which his fellow Republican candidates would approach Russia. He said other candidates’ views on that country were “superficial and dangerous, in some ways”.
Gilmore thought most candidates were offering a “bellicose approach as opposed to really understanding what we need to [about] restraining Russia”. He was also appalled that there was scarcely a mention of China, and said “there wasn’t very much understanding of the terrorist issue in the Middle East”.
Gilmore did say that he was prepared to be asked about putting a woman on the $10 bill – although he noted that he agreed with Texas senator Ted Cruz that Alexander Hamilton should be retained and instead a woman should replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.
Gilmore told the Guardian he would put Molly Ludwig Hays on a note. In 1778, Hays, far better known in American history as Molly Pitcher, brought water to soldiers in the Continental Army during the Battle of Monmouth Court House, part of the Revolutionary war. She eventually took over a cannon, after her husband collapsed from either a wound or heat exhaustion.
Although the former Virginia governor – who also mounted a brief run for the White House in 2008 – did not meet CNN’s criteria to participate in either debate on Wednesday night, he was sanguine about his chances of appearing in future candidate forums.
He said his campaign strategy did not require him to get into any debates, because “televised debates are only one method of communication”.
Instead, Gilmore expressed confidence that he could get his message out by using alternate means like campaigning in the early-voting state of New Hampshire, appearing on television and talking to voters.
On Wednesday, like the Vermont senator and candidate for the Democratic nomination Bernie Sanders, Gilmore used the internet, livetweeting the debate to his nearly 1,600 followers.
That was a start. He is still, however, more than four million Twitter followers behind the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump.
