By now, you're aware of what the Florida governor said:
"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 Community Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them," DeSantis said in a statement to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
A territorial dispute. Interesting way to frame it, to say the least.
A number of prominent Republicans seized the opportunity to seize the moral high ground - or something that they hope voters will see as a reasonable facsimile.
Let's start with the reaction of the one Republican addressing this whom we can be confident is driven by principle:
“The Ukrainian people are fighting for their freedom,” the former lawmaker said in a statement to The New York Times on Tuesday. “Surrendering to Putin and refusing to defend freedom makes America less safe.”
Cheney, who was known as a defense hawk during her time in Congress, said the stance by DeSantis showed “weakness.”
“Weakness is provocative and American officials who advocate this type of weakness are Putin’s greatest weapon,” Cheney said. “Abandoning Ukraine would make broader conflict, including with China and other American adversaries, more likely.”
Nikki Haley, who irreparably damaged her cred with the early 2021 pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago and who is now a declared presidential candidate, exudes the vibe of a politician striving to straddle in her response:
“President Trump is right when he says Governor DeSantis is copying him—first in his style, then on entitlement reform, and now on Ukraine,” 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.”
In her own response to the Fox News questionnaire, Haley offered an unequivocal “Yes,” when asked if defending Ukraine was in America’s vital interests.
“America is far better off with a Ukrainian victory than a Russian victory,” Haley said. “If Russia wins, there is no reason to believe it will stop at Ukraine.”
John Cornyn, the Texas Senator who serves as the grownup foil to his colleague with the same position, speaks pretty plainly about it:
“I’m disturbed by it. I think he’s a smart guy,” Cornyn told Politico. “I want to find out more about it, but I hope he feels like he doesn’t need to take that Tucker Carlson line to be competitive in the primary. It’s important for us to continue to support Ukrainians for our own security.”
As sentiment from some in his party has soured on the war, Cornyn has been one of the leading conservative voices in the Senate continuing to voice the need for U.S. support.
“The point that keeps getting lost in this war is that a Ukrainian victory is in our national interest,” Cornyn said on the Senate floor last month. “The most effective way to keep American troops out of the line of fire is to help the Ukrainians stop Putin now, before his conquest moves even further west.”
Marco Rubio rightly zeroed in on the "territorial dispute" characterization.
Thom Tillis emphasized the humanitarian-crisis aspect.
This dustup will deepen the fissure between MAGA world and, well, pretty much the rest of the country. Everybody who is not eyeball-deep in Kool-Aid can see what the drop-Ukraine-like-a-hot-potato position for what it is. Yes, Ukraine has dealt with corruption issues since the fall of the USSR. Nations are comprised of fallen human beings, and every last one of them has ever-present challenges as a result. But from 1991 to 2014, the world understood the parameters of Ukraine's sovereignty. Putin has acted in utter disregard for that understanding since then. A reliably stable global order is what's at stake here.
Is DeSantis flaming out already?
Probably too early to say decisively, but it's heartening to see the short-term damage it's doing to his national standing. But we surely have many more plot twists to witness before determining whether it is a corrective moment or a fatal one.
Pandering to the MAGA crowd may win DeSantis primary votes, but he'll go down in flames in a general election -- unless his opponent is Biden.
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