CNN
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russia may be in trouble vicious attack on ukrainebut President Vladimir Putin has won big elsewhere — in the Republican presidential primary.
The two top potential Republican candidates — former president donald trump and florida governor ron desantis — are making it clear that if they make it to the White House, the U.S. arms and ammunition lifeline in Ukraine will be in jeopardy and the war could end on Putin’s terms.Their stance underscores grassroots conservative opposition to war and President Joe Biden’s Gather the West to fund Kiev’s resistance to Putin’s unprovoked invasion.
“Death and destruction must end now!” Trump wrote in response to a questionnaire from Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on war and American involvement. DeSantis answered the same question, retorting in his clearest signal yet that if he wins the presidency, he will reduce U.S. help to Ukraine. “We cannot prioritize intervention in escalating foreign wars over the defense of our own homeland,” he wrote.
Trump’s warning that only he can prevent World War III and DeSantis’ main argument that saving Ukraine is not a core U.S. national security interest may gain more after one of the war’s most shocking moments on Tuesday focus on.obviously shoot down american drone A Russian fighter jet has flown over the Black Sea, moving one step closer to the scenario everyone has dreaded since the war broke out a year ago – a direct clash between US and Russian troops.
“This incident should serve as a wake-up call to isolationists in the United States that it is in our national interest to see Putin as a real threat,” said Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee. That was read as an implicit rebuke of his party’s leading presidential candidate, he said in a statement Tuesday. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, among others, said DeSantis’ stance “raises questions.”
But the accusations made by some senior Senate Republicans may not matter in today’s GOP. As Trump and DeSantis struggle to overcome each other’s skepticism that the West is helping Ukraine, they are showing how “America First” Republicans can transform a party led by President Ronald Reagan to victory in the Cold War Soviet Union. Their influence is sure to deepen the divide between traditional Republican hawks in the U.S. House of Representatives and the former president’s followers, who have threatened future aid to Ukraine even before the 2024 presidential election.
The divide was evident in early exchanges in the Republican primary, as other candidates, including former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence, warned that failing to stop Putin now could lead to a disastrous confrontation later. . Haley took a much tougher line on Ukraine in a statement Tuesday. The former South Carolina governor warned that Russia’s goal is to wipe Ukraine off the map and that if Kiev “stops fighting, Ukraine will cease to exist and other countries rightfully fear they will be next”.
But her stance may help explain why she is trailing in early polls for the race. For example, a new CNN/SSRS poll on Tuesday found that 80 percent of Republicans or Republican-leaning independents think it’s important that Republican presidential candidates think the U.S. “should not be involved in a war between Russia and Ukraine.”
The Republican political calculations will have far-reaching geopolitical ramifications.
Republicans are skeptical of U.S. aid to Ukraine, presenting President Volodymyr Zelensky with the most critical test yet of his international campaign for the weapons and ammunition Ukraine needs to survive. It would also reinforce Putin’s apparent belief that he can outlast the West’s resolve and ultimately crush Ukrainian resistance. The prospect of a Republican successor in the White House ditching Ukraine would also be a bigger problem for Biden, adding to pressure on him to bolster American support for his Ukraine policy, which polls have shown has grown in recent months. Support has weakened.
If the war continues next year, the 2024 election could be a forum for a wide-ranging debate, asking the American people to decide between the twin impulses that have historically often divided the country — whether it is America’s duty to defend freedom everywhere and democracy, or should it indulge its more isolationist tendencies?
Unless Trump or DeSantis step down in the coming months, Ukraine’s fate may actually be on the ballot in next year’s primaries and November’s general election. Biden’s vow to stick with Zelensky “as long as needed” could expire on Jan. 20, 2025 — the next presidential inauguration.
The rhetoric about Russia from the biggest names in 2024 has alarmed Capitol Hill, and many Republican House committee chairmen and top senators are urging Biden to do more to support Ukraine — including sending in F-16 fighter jets.
On Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, Senator Marco Rubio appeared to be berating his state’s governor – arguing that the US does have a national security interest in Ukraine and wondering if DeSantis’ inexperience was a factor. “I don’t know what he wants to do or what his goals are. Obviously, as governor, he doesn’t deal with foreign policy on a day-to-day basis, so I’m not sure,” Rubio said.
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has already endorsed Trump for the White House in 2024, warned that those who say Ukraine doesn’t matter are actually saying the same about war crimes.
Graham told CNN’s Manuraju: “We’re not invading Russia, we’re trying to drive the Russians out of Ukraine, no Americans are dying because of it, and it’s in line with our country to do it right. Benefit.”
Still, while Rubio and Graham represent traditional Republican foreign policy orthodoxy, their comments may only help DeSantis and Trump get their point across, as many Trump voters often Think of them as part of the neoconservative bloc within the party that has led the U.S. war in the Middle East for years.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, also said he disagreed with DeSantis, but acknowledged that his own position may not reflect where his party is now. “There could be other 24-year candidates on our side who might agree with that view, and certainly Republicans across the country,” Thune said of DeSantis’ views. explain.
The most notable response to the Carlson questionnaire came from DeSantis, who has yet to formally launch a campaign but was identified in Tuesday’s CNN/SSRS poll as Trump’s most threatening potential rival. The governor is encroaching on the former president’s ideological turf, now taking a position apparently designed to hedge his former president’s attacks on the issue after speaking out against current U.S. policy in recent weeks.
“While the United States has many important national interests—protecting our borders, addressing readiness crises within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and containing the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party—it is becoming further embroiled in a The territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis said.
In response to a question about whether the U.S. should support “regime change” in Russia, the Florida governor appeared to suggest the U.S. was pursuing such a policy, warning that any replacement for Putin could prove “more ruthless.” There is no sign that the U.S. government is trying to overthrow Putin. DeSantis did not specifically say he would halt US military aid to Ukraine, leaving himself some political leeway if he were elected president. Since there are still some questions about his true beliefs CNN’s KFile reported As a member of Congress, he called on the United States to provide lethal aid to Ukraine.
But his recent comments were brilliant in echoing Putin’s talking points. By referring to “territorial disputes,” the governor minimized Russia’s unprovoked intrusion into a sovereign state that Putin insists has no right to exist. His response to regime change also bolstered claims by the Russian leader for years that Washington was trying to oust him, a point likely to be emphasized by propagandists in Moscow’s state media.
DeSantis’ response to Carlson about the war also highlights how the normal relationship between political leaders and media commentators has been subverted by Fox and its star anchors. Carlson enthusiastically endorsed DeSantis’ answer, seemingly designed to win his approval. That puts Carlson in an astonishing position, potentially planning what could eventually become U.S. foreign policy on one of the most critical issues since the end of the Cold War.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently performed a similar prostration, offering Carlson exclusive access to surveillance footage from the U.S. Capitol from the Jan. The truth about serious assaults.
In his response to Carlson, Trump reiterated his unverifiable claim that Russia would never have invaded Ukraine if he had been president. He called for an end to fighting and peace talks that would effectively justify the incursions of Putin, whom he has often courted while in the Oval Office. “The president has to meet with each side, and then both sides, together, come to an agreement quickly. If it’s done by the right president, it’s easy to do,” Trump said. “Both sides are tired and ready to make a deal,” he added, not reflecting the reality of war.
Given her views contradicted Carlson’s, Haley went public with her responses to the Ukraine question — and accused DeSantis of copying Trump’s position.
“The Russian government is a powerful dictatorship with an unabashed hatred of the United States. Unlike other anti-American regimes, it is seeking to brutally expand into neighboring pro-American countries by force,” she wrote. “It also regularly threatens other U.S. allies. A U.S. victory in Ukraine is much better than a Russian victory.”
Haley’s statement epitomized divisions over the war that will liven up the Republican primary debates that begin later this year — and which will be closely watched in Kiev and Moscow. She would not be Putin’s preferred candidate.