According to a new report from CNN, Republican 2024 presidential hopeful and “mechanical try-hard” Ron DeSantis argued for sending weapons to Ukraine while in Congress, “a position at odds with his statements this week questioning the United States’ involvement in the conflict.”
Before he was cosplaying as a Top Gun fighter pilot, DeSantis took a “hardline, hawkish approach to Russia.” But in a transparently political appeal to the MAGA base, he has pivoted to parroting Donald Trump’s messaging — despite a strong majority of Americans supporting U.S. efforts to defend Ukrainian democracy.
By Em Steck, Andrew Kaczynski, & Olivia Alafriz | February 26, 2023
Key Points:
-
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis once strongly supported arming Ukraine to fight Russia, urging then-President Barack Obama to do so as a deterrent to Russian aggression in Eastern Europe – a position at odds with his statements this week questioning the United States’ involvement in the conflict.”
-
“As a conservative congressman, DeSantis, now a potential presidential hopeful, urged sending ‘defensive and offensive’ weapons to Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 and even voted to refuse to fund a new missile defense treaty with Russia until they withdrew from Ukraine, according to a review of DeSantis’ past comments by CNN’s KFile.”
-
“Once an advocate of a hardline, hawkish approach to Russia by supporting Ukraine, the Florida governor shifted course this week in anticipation of a potential presidential run in a changed, more isolationist Republican party, questioning whether it was in the United States’ interest to be involved in what he called, ‘things like the borderlands or over Crimea.’”
-
“He added that Russia was not ‘the same threat to our country, even though they’re hostile’ and downplayed the threats that Russia could invade NATO countries.”
-
“DeSantis’ foreign policy pivot from being a self-described follower of the ‘Reagan school’ of foreign policy to a more Trumpian worldview comes as the Republican Party’s voting base has grown increasingly isolationist. A recent poll from Pew Research Center shows 40% of Republican and Republican-leaning independent voters now believe the US is providing too much support for Ukraine, up from 9% last year.”
-
“A CNN KFile review of DeSantis’ past comments and actions found that DeSantis consistently supported sending aid to Ukraine and condemned the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and 2015 and as late as 2017.”
Read the full report here.
Published: Feb 27, 2023