Florida’s Ron DeSantis, backing away from Ukraine, angers Republican hawks
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Mr DeSantis angered many Republicans in the foreign policy establishment, who said he had talked himself into a corner.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – Declaring this week that defending Ukraine against Russia’s invasion is not a vital interest for the United States, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida cemented a Republican shift away from hawkish foreign policy that has played out over the past decade and accelerated with Mr Donald Trump’s political rise.
Mr Trump and Mr DeSantis – whose combined support makes up more than 75 per cent of Republican primary voters
Republican foreign policy hawks recoiled at Mr DeSantis’ statement on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News on Monday night, in which the governor deviated from the position held by most of the Republican establishment on Capitol Hill, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader.
Mr McConnell and other top congressional Republicans have framed the invasion by President Vladimir Putin of Russia as a fight to defend the post-World War II international security framework.
“DeSantis is wrong and seems to have forgotten the lessons of Ronald Reagan,” said former representative Liz Cheney, who led the House select committee investigating Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“This is not ‘a territorial dispute’,” she added in a statement, echoing Mr DeSantis’ phrasing. “The Ukrainian people are fighting for their freedom. Surrendering to Putin and refusing to defend freedom makes America less safe.”
She went on: “Weakness is provocative and American officials who advocate this type of weakness are Putin’s greatest weapon. Abandoning Ukraine would make broader conflict, including with China and other American adversaries, more likely.”
Senator Lindsey Graham said in an interview on Tuesday that he “could not disagree more” with Mr DeSantis’ characterisation of the stakes attached to the defence of Ukraine.
“The Neville Chamberlain approach to aggression never ends well,” added Mr Graham, comparing Mr DeSantis to the British prime minister who appeased German leader Adolf Hitler. “This is an attempt by Putin to rewrite the map of Europe by force of arms.”
Senator Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also took issue with Mr DeSantis’ comments – a significant rebuke from the senior Republican in Mr DeSantis’ home state.
“I don’t know what he’s trying to do or what the goal is,” Mr Rubio, a former presidential candidate, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
And Senator John Cornyn told Politico he is “disturbed” by Mr DeSantis’ comments.
Mr Trump has long made his views on foreign intervention clear, railing against the Iraq War in his 2016 campaign, but Mr DeSantis had sought to avoid being pinned down on one of the most important foreign policy questions facing the prospective Republican presidential field.
His choice of words, describing the conflict as a “territorial dispute”, is telling.
By referring to Russia’s unprovoked invasion that way, he dismissed the argument that Mr Putin’s aggression threatens the postwar international order.
Mr DeSantis and Mr Trump have unequivocally rejected the idea that the conflict is a war to defend “freedom”, a position espoused by two of their potential rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, former vice-president Mike Pence and Ms Nikki Haley, former United Nations ambassador.
Mr DeSantis left himself some wiggle room in his statement, which came in response to a questionnaire that Mr Carlson had sent to all the major prospective Republican presidential candidates.
The governor did not promise to end all US aid to Ukraine – an omission noticed by some hardline opponents of support for Ukraine, who criticised him for leaving open the possibility that he would keep up the flow of US assistance.
Yet by downplaying the stakes of the conflict to the extent he did, Mr DeSantis angered many Republicans in the foreign policy establishment, who said he had talked himself into a corner.
Even if he were to change his mind about Ukraine, how would a President DeSantis rally the public and Congress to send billions of dollars and high-tech weapons for a mere “territorial dispute” of no vital interest to America?
Former governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, said the remarks are “a naive and complete misunderstanding of the historical context of what’s going on” and that authoritarians will fill the void if the US retreats from global leadership.
Mr Charles Kupperman, who served under Mr John Bolton as a deputy national security adviser in the Trump administration, said Mr DeSantis has shown “a very poor understanding of our national security interests”, adding, “I’m surprised he’s gone so far so fast.”
It is unclear who, if anyone, helped Mr DeSantis write the statement.
Conservatives who want the US to shift its focus away from Europe to China are delighted by Mr DeSantis’ statement.
“Americans desperately need a foreign policy that understands what’s really in their interests and pursues those interests strategically and realistically in a dangerous world,” said Mr Elbridge Colby, a former senior official at the Defence Department who recently briefed Senate Republicans on China policy.
“That’s clearly the approach Governor DeSantis laid out in his response to Tucker Carlson,” Mr Colby added. “He prioritised the top threats to America, such as China and narcotics streaming over the border, rightly seeing Ukraine as a distraction from these top challenges, while also rejecting the Wilsonian radicalism that has led us to disaster before and would be catastrophic if pursued today.”
And there is a sharp divide between elite Republican opinion and the views of party voters. While many top Republicans are outraged by Mr DeSantis’ statement, he and Mr Trump stand closer to the average GOP voter than Republicans like Mr McConnell who are urging President Joe Biden to do more to support Ukraine.
A January poll from the Pew Research Centre showed that 40 per cent of Republican and Republican-leaning independent voters thought the US was giving too much support to Ukraine. Only 17 per cent thought the US was not doing enough.
Conservative interventionists had held out hope that Mr DeSantis would split with Mr Trump on Ukraine policy. Mr DeSantis spooked them late last month when he suggested on Fox News that he was not committed to defending Ukraine.
But Mr DeSantis’ comments in that interview were brief and vague enough for these conservatives to stay hopeful that he would end up on their side. They searched for positive signs, finding solace in his record in Congress.
In 2014 and 2015, after Mr Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine, Mr DeSantis criticised President Barack Obama as not doing enough to support Ukraine.
In Florida, Mr DeSantis recently hosted historian William Inboden, author of a recent book about president Ronald Reagan’s efforts during the Cold War, to exchange thoughts about foreign policy, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
Mr Inboden and an associate did not respond to e-mails seeking comment. An aide to Mr DeSantis did not respond to a request for comment. NYTIMES
