Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday in an interview with MSNBC that he would continue to send U.S. military aid to Ukraine but did not specify how much and for how long.
Asked by MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough if he supported “continued funding” for Ukraine and if so, for how long, DeSantis repliied:
So I would not do what Biden’s doing which is funding pensions for bureaucrats over their pet funding salaries, their funding small business stuff. We were supportive of the defensive weaponry to be able to prevent Putin from taking over the country.
So as president, I’m going to leverage resources. I’m going to get the Europeans to do more. I’m going to do more on the energy side. I’m going to do more on China, which by the way, is the biggest benefactor for Ukraine. But I would not just send checks because I think what they’re going to do is they want $60 billion now, but I think they’re going to come back at the beginning of the year next year and ask for at least another $100 billion. So we’ve already put a lot of money into this. And he hasn’t really been able to articulate a coherent strategy about how does this come to an end?
I think our interest is bringing it to an end in a way that keeps Russia in a box. But it’s not going to have a spend hundreds of billions of dollars for an outcome that’s not much different.
When pressed on whether he supported sending more weapons to Ukraine, he said, “Well, not only that, I mean, I supported it under Trump, and then I supported the initial stuff under Biden.”
However, he noted that U.S. weapons stocks are running low and there was a need to have European countries “step up.”
“We need to set priorities. We don’t have the ability to just flood every part of the world. So I would prioritize the Indo-Pacific. I would provide support for Israel and then I would leverage the Europeans to help with Ukraine and bring that to an end,” he said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis: "No blank cheque on Ukraine" pic.twitter.com/ksPXoijZMa
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) November 2, 2023
DeSantis’s support to continue sending military aid to Ukraine comes amid waning American public support for Ukraine. A new Gallup poll shows that a plurality of Americans now say the U.S. is giving too much aid to Ukraine, as reported by Breitbart News.
It also comes as Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia has reached a stalemate, according to a top Ukrainian general.
“There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough,” Valery Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, told the Economist, according to Axios. The two sides have “reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” he reportedly said.
The stalled counteroffensive is despite the U.S. and Western allies sending billions in military equipment, as well as training Ukrainian forces.
DeSantis’s support also comes amid a massive fight in Congress over continuing aid to Ukraine.
The U.S. has already committed at least $113 billion in aid to Ukraine since February 2022, when Russia invaded the country. The Biden administration requested an additional $24 billion more through the end of 2023, but House Republicans rejected that proposal. Now, the Biden administration has asked for $61 billion more, as part of a $105 billion package that would include $14 billion for Israel.
House Republicans on Thursday rejected the idea of passing the aid for Ukraine and Israel together in one package, and on Thursday, passed funding for Israel only. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has reportedly promised to bring a bill for Ukraine aid to the floor soon after. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he is opposed to splitting the two and has reportedly said Thursday’s House bill for Israel aid is dead on arrival in the Senate.
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