In another sign that he is preparing to run for president in 2024, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced Monday that he supports US support for Ukraine in a statement to conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson..
DeSantis has argued that opposing Russia in Ukraine is not in America’s vital interest, offending much of the GOP establishment and siding with the former President. Donald Trumpbiggest rival in a hypothetical run for the White House.
“While the US has many important national interests – securing our borders, addressing the readiness crisis in our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party – it has become increasingly entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis said in a statement indicated by Carlson, who is skeptical above Ukraine.
The regent also spoke argument made by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) that the US cannot continue to write “blank checks” to Kyiv.
“The Biden administration’s virtual ‘blank check’ funding for this conflict for ‘as long as possible,’ without defined goals or accountability, distracts from our nation’s most pressing challenges,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis, like many governors who have been presidents before him, has been slow to sketch out his foreign policy. In recent weeks, he has shrugged off and dodged questions about the issue of US support for Ukraine, fueling speculation that he will join a growing faction in the Republican Party questioning additional military and financial aid to the country.
She revealed her position to Carlson, who often became her husband sympathetic view Russian President Vladimir Putin and spoke to the Kremlin about the cable program, putting an exclamation point on DeSantis’ position ahead of the announcement of the 2024 campaign.
Evidence from Russia war crimes has been installed in the year since Putin launched a bloody invasion of Ukraine, including rape, torture, forced relocation and indiscriminate shelling of civilians. Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed by Russian bombs, and countless others have been forced to flee their homeland.
Europe’s biggest land war since World War II has shaken European security and fueled fears of unchecked Russian aggression in other corners of the world, including over China and its ambitions toward Taiwan.
President Joe Biden reaffirmed his commitment to Ukraine during a surprise visit to Kyiv last month to mark the anniversary of the war. Biden said that “democratic freedoms in general” are at stake in the conflict.
DeSantis’ stance on Ukraine has put him at odds with prominent GOP figures, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) who said during the Munich Security Conference last month that party leaders are “committed to helping Ukraine.”
But while top congressional Republicans have supported U.S. support for Ukraine so far, sentiment among the GOP base is quickly turning against it.
Trump, the second former president to lead the polls in the 2024 GOP presidential race, is an early isolationist voice with an “America First” platform. He also told Carlson that opposing Russia in Ukraine is not in the U.S.’s primary interest, urging Biden to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine.
“The President should meet with each side, then both sides together, and quickly make a deal. This can be done easily if done by the right President. Both sides are tired and ready to make a deal. The meeting should start immediately, no time to step aside,” Trump said in a statement.
A peace deal may include some territorial concessions by Ukraine to its aggressive neighbor, an outcome that Ukrainian and US leaders have not agreed to.
DeSantis appears to be trying to win over Trump voters ahead of his own bid for president.
In the past few years, the governor seems to have changed his foreign policy stance. The Florida Republican previously criticized former President Barack Obama’s administration for not sending weapons to Ukraine after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, according to CNN’s KFile.
Carlson asked the announced and likely 2024 GOP presidential candidate for answers to six questions about his position on the Ukraine war. He also received answers from former Vice President Mike Pence, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman who has announced his run for president.
Pence said the US and other world leaders would regret bailing out Ukraine. Citing former President Ronald Reagan and his stance against the aggression of the Soviet Union, Pence warned that an unchecked Russia would create more problems for the US in the future.
“There is no place for Putin apologists in the Republican Party. This is not America’s war, but if Putin does not stop and the sovereign state of Ukraine is not restored quickly, he will continue to go to NATO allies, and America will be asked to send itself,” Pence said.
“Vladimir Putin has revealed his true nature, a dictator who uses conquest and is willing to sacrifice thousands of lives to commit to rebuilding a greater Russian Empire,” he said. “Anyone who thinks Putin is going to stop at the Ukrainian border has no idea who Putin is.”
Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, who announced his candidacy for president last month, did not respond to Carlson’s request, according to a post on the host’s Twitter account.
Haley to NBC’s “Today” show last month the US should support Ukraine with military equipment, but not money.