Ron DeSantis did well overall at Wednesday night’s GOP presidential debate, with one glaring exception that could cost him support as the alternative to Donald Trump. To wit, he keeps ducking and covering on U.S. aid for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.
“It’s in our interest to end this war. And that’s what I will do as President,” the Florida Governor said. “We are not going to have a blank check. We will not have U.S. troops, and we’re going to make the Europeans do what they need to do,” details unavailable. He then careened into the non-sequitur of talking about the U.S. border.
Consider his scripted answers one by one. Everyone wants to end the war, but there’s a hitch: Vladimir Putin. Would Mr. DeSantis deliver peace by caving to the Russian’s demands, the way that Donald Trump is suggesting he would?
The Governor’s “blank check” line is a red herring, since no one is offering one. Europe should do more, but that is beside the point of U.S. help. If the U.S. abandons Kyiv, Russia wins. Period. Pitting a defense of the U.S. border against aid for Ukraine is a false choice, since the U.S. can do both if it has the will.
Mr. DeSantis seems to be courting the minority of GOP primary voters who want to cut off Ukraine, and 104 House Republicans did vote this week to strip Ukraine aid out of a spending bill. But is that how Mr. DeSantis wants to lead — by following strategists Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene?
The risk of this political tightrope is that voters conclude the Governor has no fixed worldview. Some GOP voters are isolationist and want America to withdraw from the world, but they will vote for Mr. Trump or Vivek Ramaswamy.
A much larger share of the primary and general electorate is not opposed to supporting Ukraine on principle. But those voters are concerned about the awful and slow fight, even after sending money and weapons, and they’re frustrated by President Biden’s failure to explain the cause or U.S. interests in Ukraine.
A BETTER election strategy is to prosecute Mr. Biden’s handling of the war. The Biden Administration has calibrated its support on fear of Vladimir Putin’s response, a cowering that GOP voters don’t like.
The President has slow-walked advanced weapons for Ukraine time and again, and now the White House is trumpeting to the press that it managed to start delivering Ukraine a few dozen tanks in eight months. The alternative to this failure isn’t selling out Ukraine, but explaining why defeating Russia is essential to U.S. interests and to deterring China in Taiwan.
Gov. DeSantis was on target when he said the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party is “fundamental” to U.S. security. But how will the U.S. persuade Europe to scale back trade and ties with Beijing if America says Mr. Putin on the march isn’t a U.S. problem?
This gets to Chris Christie’s point that Ukraine and Beijing are “connected.” The “Chinese are paying for the Russian war in Ukraine,” and the North Koreans and Iranians are contributing weapons. “The Chinese-Russian Alliance is something we have to fight against, and we are not going to solve it by going over and cuddling up to Vladimir Putin.”
Gov. DeSantis told voters a compelling story about his decision to serve in the military after 9/11, and he’s well positioned to explain to Americans why it makes more strategic sense to send weapons abroad today rather than having to send U.S. troops later.
Mr. DeSantis is competing with Nikki Haley and perhaps one or two others to see who can emerge as the main challenger to Mr. Trump in Iowa and beyond. Ms. Haley is gaining support because she shows conviction. A bob and weave on Ukraine doesn’t look good by comparison.
— Wall Street Journal
