In response to a Tucker Carlson questionnaire, likely presidential nominee and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sided with Trump: DeSantis says that Ukraine is not a vital interest to the U.S., and that the invasion by Russia is nothing more than a territorial dispute.
Marco Rubio questioned his governor’s political calculus, wondering out loud if it was purely a political ploy to keep the base happy, and specifically noted that DeSantis as governor does not deal with foreign affairs in Tallahassee.
“I don’t know what he’s trying to do or what the goal is. Obviously, he doesn’t deal with foreign policy every day as Governor. So I’m not sure. I can’t speak to that. I can’t compare that to something else he did or said over the last few years because he doesn’t deal with it every day,” Rubio said.
“This is an invasion. The Russians basically decided that ‘we want a government in Ukraine that we have control over.’ And their goal was, ‘We’re going to go in, we’re going to topple their government or they’re going to abandon the country and then we’ll install a puppet through some fake election and then they’ll be in our orbit of influence,’” Rubio said.
“And so it’s not the same as two countries arguing over boundaries that were settled in some treaty 50 years ago. I mean, this is basically the Russians want Ukraine to be under their thumb,” Rubio added, noting that the issue really heated up in 2014 when Ukraine wanted to join the European Union.
DeSantis supported arms for Ukraine in 2015, disguised as a criticism of President Obama.