The Not Ready For Prime Time Candidate
Ron DeSantis screws up again.
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I wasn’t planning to write about Ron DeSantis again so soon, but when a candidate steps in it as badly as the Florida Governor did this week, it merits a post.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is dismissing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” and says protecting the European nation is not a vital U.S. interest, firmly putting the potential presidential candidate on the side of Donald Trump and at odds with top congressional Republicans.
DeSantis delivered his foreign policy opinion in response to a questionnaire from Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host, foe of U.S. aid to Ukraine and frequent critic of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Carlson read DeSantis’s statement on his Monday night program in which he also shared responses from the former president and former vice president Mike Pence, among other potential White House candidates.
“While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness with our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis said in a statement.
A couple of things on this.
First, it’s one thing to say that the US has no vital national security interests in Ukraine. I disagree, but it’s an argument that can be made. But to call an unprovoked invasion by Russia of its Eastern neighbor a “territorial dispute” is indefensible. DeSantis is spouting pro-Russian talking points. Beyond that, DeSantis is implying that the global norms enshrined in the rules-based international system (like don’t invade your neighbors and seize their territory) don’t matter.
Second, earlier this week, DeSantis leapfrogged across Iowa, bragging about his leadership bonafides and how he always pushes for what he believes are the right policies, even if it creates a backlash. According to Ron DeSantis, Ron DeSantis does not tack to the political winds.
Yet, here he is adopting an “America First,” quasi-isolationist look the other way at Russian aggression position that appears to be driven more by a desire to create as little policy distance as possible between him and Donald Trump. For those who might suggest that DeSantis is expressing his deeply held views … here’s what he previously did and said about Ukraine.In 2014, DeSantis voted for an aid package for Ukraine and backed a 2015 resolution that called on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine while authorizing security assistance for Kyiv. He advocated for a “Reaganist” foreign policy stance in a 2016 interview with Fox News’s Lou Dobbs, criticizing President Barack Obama for what he called a lackluster response to Russian aggression in Eastern Europe.
“If we had a policy which was firm, which armed Ukraine with defensive and offensive weapons so that they could defend themselves, I think Putin would make different calculations,” DeSantis said.
In an interview in 2014, DeSantis referred again to Reagan and the importance of “projecting strength” and “standing by your allies.” He also said Americans have a “common cause” with Ukrainians. In his comments, which came after Russia had annexed Crimea, DeSantis said the United States was “definitely limited” in its military options to step in but that Washington shouldn’t completely turn away. “I don’t know Ukraine as a whole is written off,” he said.
Third, this is a dumb political move. There was no reason for DeSantis to take this position so early in the GOP race. ,Tucker Carlson sent him a questionnaire and he could have easily finessed an answer or offered some mushy abstraction. Instead, he went all-in on a policy that not only opens him up to attack from Democrats … but is already producing ridicule from Republicans.
Fourth, in trying to create as little policy space between him and Trump, he's given the former president an opening to attack him — which, not surprisingly, Trump quickly seized on. Speaking to reporters, he said that DeSantis is "following what I am saying. It is a flip-flop. He was totally different. Whatever I want, he wants."
Trump is right! This move makes DeSantis look like he's following, not leading. Trump can argue that DeSantis is just a pale version of him, and why vote for the imitation when you can get the real thing? The rejoinder from the DeSantis camp would be that Trump is too toxic to win a general election, so a vote for him means getting Trump's policies but in a more effective political package. There's a certain logic to this position, but in the Republican primary, being the alpha male is everything — and by basically aping Trump's views (and in such an obvious way), DeSantis looks weak and feckless. This episode is a classic case of a candidate out-thinking and not fully appreciating the second-order effects of taking a political stance out of short-term expediency.
Fifth,
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