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There was still some modicum of ambiguity in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ position on Ukraine before this week. On Monday night, the Florida Republican removed all doubt.
In response to a question from Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, the governor argued that protecting Ukraine is not a “vital” national interest for the United States. DeSantis added that, as far as he’s concerned, Russia’s unprovoked invasion of its neighbor should be seen as “a territorial dispute.” New York’s Jon Chait applied more granular scrutiny to the Floridian’s written response, and found that DeSantis’ position gets even more problematic the closer one looks.
Before considering the domestic implications, it’s worth pausing to appreciate an international audience. Writing for Puck News, Julia Ioffe reported:
[Julia Davis, who founded Russian Media Monitor] noted that Kremlin state media has been elated at DeSantis’s statement on Ukraine. “It sent them into ecstasy,” Davis told me. “They call him No. 2, because Trump is still No. 1. They’re saying that the likes of [Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell], their days are numbered and MAGA Republicans are the future. They’re very excited and it’s giving them something to hope for, that Ukraine will just be handed over to them with no more help from the U.S.”
The headline on Ioffe’s report: “Putin’s Boy from Tallahassee.”
The geopolitical significance matters. As we discussed yesterday, if Vladimir Putin believes U.S. support for Ukraine effectively has an expiration date — a Republican White House would abandon our ally after the 2024 elections — then it increases the likelihood that the Russian leader will keep the war going, hoping to wait out the incumbent Democratic administration.
But while Moscow might’ve been delighted with the Florida governor’s rhetoric, many of DeSantis’ partisan brethren were far less pleased. NBC News reported:
Republican senators broke with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday over his remarks that defending Ukraine against Russian aggression wasn’t a “vital” U.S. interest. “I completely disagree with his comments,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee. About a half-dozen of Wicker’s GOP colleagues voiced varying degrees of opposition to DeSantis’ remarks Monday night on Fox News.
Among those speaking out was a fellow Florida Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio, who rejected DeSantis’ position entirely. “I don’t know what he’s trying to do or what the goal is,” the senator said. “Obviously, he doesn’t deal with foreign policy every day as governor.”
That’s true, though DeSantis did serve on the House Foreign Affairs Committee for six years, so suggesting that he’s clueless about foreign policy doesn’t entirely work. (Indeed, when DeSantis was in Congress, he held the opposite position that he’s pushing now — a point Donald Trump was eager to emphasize yesterday.)
Why do these developments matter? In part, of course, because Russia is paying close attention. It’s also of interest to see DeSantis face the most significant intraparty pushback of his career, just as he prepares to launch a bid for national office.
But just as notable is the fact that the Republican Party no longer has a clear foreign policy anymore, and the divisions within the party — members vs. members, leaders vs. base, candidates vs. candidates — are growing more pronounced, and there’s no reason to believe these fissures will be resolved anytime soon.