Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ comments on the U.S.’s involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict have caused some division among both political parties.
Last week, DeSantis appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and said that American entanglement in the war is not in the country’s “vital national interests.”
“While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis responded to a Fox News questionnaire of potential 2024 presidential candidates.
The governor’s remarks polarized the Republican Party, with many of his constituents pushing back against DeSantis’ opinions about America’s involvement in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
These Republicans have pushed back against DeSantis’s Ukraine comments https://t.co/c1UjnoRpcv pic.twitter.com/SylxskKz0w
— The Hill (@thehill) March 15, 2023
“If (Russian President Vladimir) Putin loses in Ukraine, then the world resets in all the right ways,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said on Twitter. “If he wins in Ukraine and the west capitulates just like in the past, more conflict is coming.”
“President Trump is right when he says Governor DeSantis is copying him—first in his style, then on entitlement reform, and now on Ukraine,” former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said in a statement. “I have a different style than President Trump, and while I agree with him on most policies, I do not on those.”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also disagreed with his home-state governor, saying that Russia’s ultimate goal is to take over Ukraine.
“Well, it’s not a territorial dispute in the sense that any more than it would be a territorial dispute if the United States decided that it wanted to invade Canada or take over the Bahamas,” Rubio said in an interview on Tuesday. “Just because someone claims something doesn’t mean it belongs to them.”
Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney also said that DeSantis was wrong in his assessment of the importance of U.S. involvement in the war.
“The Ukrainian people are fighting for their freedom,” Cheney said in a statement on Tuesday. “Surrendering to Putin and refusing to defend freedom makes America less safe.”
The former lawmaker went on to say that the governor showed “weakness,” adding that “Abandoning Ukraine would make broader conflict, including with China and other American adversaries, more likely.”
