Republicans Take Out Their Long-Held Ukraine Anger on DeSantis
Plus: Is the GOP doomed to another losing Senate cycle?
Republicans Gang Up on DeSantis for Being Like Trump
When DeSantis gave Tucker Carlson a statement of his stance on American support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion, it sent a shockwave through the Capitol. The fact that DeSantis was essentially, as Nikki Haley put it, “copying” Donald Trump’s already widely understood position—as future also-rans like Vivek Ramaswamy and Kristi Noem also did, but without eliciting much media interest—didn’t lessen the blowback from other Republicans, who lashed out all week at the Florida governor for reducing the war to a “territorial dispute” in which the United States should not become “further entangled.”
It didn’t seem to matter to Republican critics of DeSantis that Trump not only advocates the same stance but was even impeached for withholding aid to Ukraine for political reasons—potentially encouraging Putin to see Zelensky as enjoying something less than full American support in the years leading up to the invasion.
Focusing their criticism on DeSantis allows these Republicans to attack a policy they wholeheartedly disagree with without incurring the wrath of their party’s 2024 frontrunner and de facto leader.
And the DeSantis pile-on continues to grow:
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