Sen. Mike Rounds said Sunday that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent characterization of Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” is all about politics.
The South Dakota Republican suggested the remark was the result of “primary politics,” as Mr. DeSantis weighs whether to jump into the 2024 presidential race against former President Donald Trump.
“I don’t think it’s a territorial dispute, while he may be taking territory, and it’s technically accurate to say that there’s territory being taken. This is bigger than that for us,” Mr. Rounds said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think primary politics may very well have something to do with it.”
Mr. DeSantis’ comments, which came in response to a questionnaire of potential White House hopefuls by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, have been rebuked by Democrats and Republicans.
“What’s going on in Ukraine can’t be separated out from the major issues surrounding the United States’ relationship with China,” Mr. Rounds said.
Republican divisions over U.S. military and financial aid to Ukraine were on vivid display Sunday as a number of GOP figures slammed Mr. DeSantis for calling Russia’s 13-month invasion a “territorial dispute” that did not rate as a “vital national interest.”
SEE ALSO: DeSantis calling Russia-Ukraine war a ‘territorial dispute’ draws rebukes from GOP allies
The Ukraine war is proving an increasingly divisive issue inside the party, with growing numbers in Congress and among the party base questioning the Biden administration’s decision to help arm Kyiv and provide tens of billions of dollars in security and humanitarian aid.
Mr. DeSantis, a likely contender for the 2024 presidential nomination, expressed doubts about the heavy involvement of the U.S. and NATO in backing Ukraine, arguing as some conservatives have done that the fight was a distraction from the real adversary in Beijing.
While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” the second-term Florida governor told Fox News in a statement last week.
Mr. Trump has expressed similar doubts, but many Republican leaders in Congress remain strongly in favor of helping Ukraine fight off the Russian invasion force.
On ABC’s “This Week,” former Vice President Mike Pence rejected Mr. DeSantis’ characterization of the fight as simply “wrong.”
“There are voices in our party that don’t see a vital American interest in Ukraine. But I see it differently,” Mr. Pence said Sunday, adding that the U.S. government “ought to provide the tanks, the missiles and the aircraft that the Ukrainian military can use to take the fight to the Russians.”
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, also took issue with Mr. DeSantis and other critics of U.S. aid to Kyiv.
“This is a clear — it’s not even a questionable — a clear vital national interest, to support what is going on in Ukraine,” Mr. Sununu told CNN’s “State of the Union,” warning there will be dire consequences if Russian President Vladimir Putin succeeds in Ukraine.
“If you let Russia start to come in and walk over Ukraine, you put all of Eastern Europe at risk,” said Mr. Sununu, who is weighing a campaign for the White House. “You put all of our NATO allies there at risk … [and] now you really risk having to put potential American troops on the ground, which nobody wants to see and shouldn’t happen.”
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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