As Florida Governor Ron DeSantis moves closer to an expected White House run, he's staking positions on international issues generally outside the purview of America's governors.
Amid his nationwide tour, DeSantis told “Fox & Friends” what he thought of the United States' considerable aid to Ukraine.
The Daily Wire has more:
“They have, effectively, a blank-check policy with no clear strategic objective identified,” DeSantis said of the Biden administration.
DeSantis referred to recent reports from Secretary of State Antony Blinken that China, which has already sent non-lethal military aid to Russia, may be preparing to send weapons. That comes as tensions between the U.S. and China are already at a boiling point after China sent a spy balloon floating over the U.S. earlier this month.
“These things can escalate and I don't think it's in our interest to be getting into a proxy war with China getting involved over things like the borderlands, or over Crimea,” DeSantis said. “So I think it would behoove them to identify what is the strategic objective that they're trying to achieve. But just saying it's an open-ended, blank check, that is not acceptable.”
The comments mark DeSantis' first public foray into the war in Ukraine. They coincided with the announcement of President Biden's visit to Kyiv.
And after nearly one year of heavy fighting, which has left as many as 60,000 Russians dead and tens of thousands, or more, wounded.
DeSantis added that the conflict revealed Russia's military weakness and reiterated the concern that China represents a far greater threat:
“Russia has been really, really wounded here and I don't think that they are the same threat to our country – even though they are hostile – I don't think they're on the same level as China,” DeSantis said.
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