Florida’s Governor is vowing to end “murky missions” such as the war in Ukraine if elected President.
At a Never Back Down bus tour stop in Atlantic, Iowa, Ron DeSantis offered more thoughts on the country that is still fighting back Russia’s invasion, outlining what sounds like a tougher rhetorical line than other times he addressed the issue.
“I think increasing the leverage against the rogue states, getting the Europeans to have a firm seat at the table, puts us in a position to be able to bring this to a conclusion,” DeSantis said. “Look, our interest in this as Americans is, you know, if wars just break out in Europe, we’re going to be obligated with NATO and all these other things and that’s not good for us. It’s not good for the world.”
“So we have an interest in bringing this thing to an end in a way that’s not going to embolden more aggression,” DeSantis added. “But boy, Joe Biden is not doing it in a way that’s likely to be successful and he can’t even identify, you know, what success will actually mean.”
Though American troops are not active in the Ukraine theater, DeSantis suggested they were, or would be if the war continues, and that the President has been less than clear about why.
“Our service members have a right to be on a clearly defined mission knowing that they have the full support of the United States of America. If you can’t clearly define the objective, do not put our troops in harm’s way,” DeSantis said.
“No more murky missions. If we have to do something, we go in and we go in to win and that’s just the nature of it.”
DeSantis, who courted bipartisan criticism for dismissing the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” in a seeming attempt to court favor with Tucker Carlson, has struggled to find rhetorical consistency when discussing the ongoing hot war.
During an interview in July on the Hugh Hewitt Show, DeSantis took issue with Senators who “beat their chests” about “sending more money to Ukraine,” saying it comes at the expense of greater national security priorities both at home and abroad.
He also said he was ready to bring the Ukraine War “in for a landing” during a Newsmax interview last month, saying the fight was just about “territory” and that he wanted a “sustainable peace.” He did not explain how that would happen.
In a previous interview on CNN, DeSantis called Ukraine a “secondary or tertiary” American interest after host Jake Tapper reminded him he wanted to send the country weapons while in Congress.
During an interview at Iowa’s Family Leadership Summit, DeSantis framed his position as one of knowing foreign policy isn’t all “peaches and cream,” adding that he knew Vladimir Putin was a “bad guy.”
For nearly a year and a half, the Governor has given live quotes that could come back to haunt him with America’s putative allies in NATO. Among them: a claim that France would capitulate to a Russian invasion.
DeSantis said Ukrainians were “willing to fight” and “go out there and ward off a Russian army,” before presenting a seemingly avoidable contrast.
“A lot of other places around the world, they just fold the minute there’s any type of adversity. I mean, can you imagine, if he went into France, do you think they’d do anything to put up a fight? Probably not,” DeSantis mused in March 2022.
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