Marco Rubio further distances himself from Ron DeSantis framing Ukraine war as a ‘territorial dispute’

At this point, both Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio are on solid footing.

Florida’s Senior Senator and its Governor still don’t see eye to eye on the Ukraine endgame.

During an appearance on CBS Mornings, Marco Rubio again distanced himself from Ron DeSantis’ take that the Ukraine war is a simple “territorial dispute” outside of the national interest of the United States.

“If we were to cut and run now, if we were to walk away from our commitment to Ukraine, the Chinese would point to that and say to our allies, ‘How are you going to count on the United States? They’re not going to be there. They abandoned Afghanistan chaotically, and they didn’t do anything about it. They couldn’t even sustain an effort in Ukraine against Russia.’”

Rubio offered a number of qualifiers, including saying war supporters have an “obligation to explain to people why it matters” and the need to get “allies, particularly rich countries like Germany, to do more and to do their part.” But his position was still one of backing American involvement.

“But I don’t think our interests there are zero. And so our effort there should not be zero either,” the Senator said.

DeSantis contended Monday that “while the U.S. has many vital national interests … becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them.”

Those comments were part of a long statement questioning “‘blank check’ funding of this conflict for ‘as long as it takes,’ without any defined objectives or accountability” from the Joe Biden administration. The CBS interview was the second time this week Rubio rejected that reasoning.

During a Tuesday interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show, Rubio said he didn’t understand DeSantis’ political calculus in the statement DeSantis offered to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

“I don’t know what he’s trying to do or what the goal is. Obviously, he doesn’t deal with foreign policy every day as Governor. So I’m not sure. I can’t speak to that. I can’t compare that to something else he did or said over the last few years because he doesn’t deal with it every day,” Rubio said.

“It’s not a territorial dispute … any more than it would be a territorial dispute if the United States decided that it wants to take over Canada or take over the Bahamas. Just because someone claims something doesn’t mean it belongs to them.”