A.G. Gancarski
A conservative commentator isn’t happy with Ron DeSantis and his continued positional changes on Ukraine, and blames the Governor’s inconsistency on trying to please a donor who backed him in the past.
On Monday, Tucker Carlson criticized DeSantis for Ken Griffin having allegedly “told him to change his view on Ukraine from ‘It’s a regional conflict we shouldn’t get involved in’ to ‘It’s a super important thing. We should send more money.'”
It’s worth noting here that Griffin has broken with DeSantis, after having backed him in his re-election bid and having urged him to run for President, before cooling on DeSantis in recent months.
“One donor got him to change his view and all these so-called conservatives are supporting that,” Carlson claimed. “Like, it’s the most important thing ever, like who are these people and what is their problem? Like, what is going on with them?”
It’s unclear to whom Carlson was referring specifically, though he led off his Ukraine upset with a denunciation of “the people who represent him online” as “the nastiest, the stupidest and the most zero sum people I’ve ever seen in my life.” Again, he didn’t name which DeSantis advocates and surrogates matched that description.
We’ve reached out to the DeSantis campaign for response to Carlson’s Ukraine claim, but comment was not immediately available Monday night.
DeSantis originally deemed the war a “territorial dispute” and not one of America’s “vital national interests” in a statement provided to Tucker Carlson, in a seeming effort to curry favor with the now-former Fox News host.
He soon enough walked that position back, telling Piers Morgan “it wasn’t that I thought Russia had a right to that, and so if I should have made that more clear, I could have done it.”
He would go on from there to call for a “settlement” in the war, before a spirited exchange in July with Carlson in Iowa at the Family Leadership Summit.
DeSantis took issue with Carlson saying he changed his position from telling Carlson that the Russian invasion was a simple “territorial dispute,” rejecting Carlson’s restatement of DeSantis’ position as changing his view “to describe Putin as a war criminal and say that it was central to America’s foreign policy.”
“So the last part I did not say,” DeSantis said, leaving it unclear whether Carlson meant the “war criminal” statement (which he made in March while walking back his statement to Carlson) or the idea that defending Ukraine was “central to America’s foreign policy.”
“You dissent from the DC foreign policy elite, they then try to smear you and say, ‘Oh, you must be for Putin.’ I’ve always thought Putin is a bad guy. I still think he’s a bad guy. But that’s a separate question for a leader who’s got to look at the world in very clear-eyed glasses. You know that it’s not all peaches and cream out there and you have to make a judgment about what’s in America’s national interest,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis reaffirmed the “territorial dispute” framing soon thereafter.
“And the dispute at this point or the war at this point is not whether Ukraine’s government is going to fall. They’re fighting over territory on the far eastern part of the country between Russia and Ukraine. And that’s kind of where this is at. So the question is OK, how do you get that to where we can stop this and also from our national interest,” DeSantis said.
Carlson did not mention Ken Griffin during that interview.
12 comments
My Take
December 19, 2023 at 1:24 am
“It’s unclear to whom Carlson was referring specifically, though he led off his Ukraine upset with a denunciation of *****“the people who represent him online” as “the nastiest, the stupidest and the most zero sum people I’ve ever seen in my life.”***** Again, he didn’t name which DeSantis advocates and surrogates matched that description.”
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Oh we might think of a few.
Joe
December 20, 2023 at 9:46 am
Christina Pushaw, Bryan Griffin, Generra Peck, James Uthmeier, and of course Casey D herself — Tiny D surrounds himself with a too-online, insular group of nasty know-nothings who let him constantly trip over his own boots while they tweet at his shrinking base. The candidate of “competence” proved to be defined by his campaign’s sheer incompetence.
Sonja Fitch
December 19, 2023 at 5:22 am
Lol! Desantis is like a whole bunch of Republicans! BUY ME! Lol
Even the “donors” know that Desantis will say or do anything for MONEY!
Dont Say FLA
December 19, 2023 at 7:20 am
Nobody cares what internet comments people say, so why the story about what this guy says about Rhonda? Let the beaten, dead horse lie.
Osama Sin Bladen
December 19, 2023 at 8:04 am
I was a spoiled rich kid like Tucker TV Dinnerface Carlson.
I had an Internet podcast like Tucker TV Dinnerface Carlson.
Remember TV dinners? LOL. How anybody got a silver spoon in his mouth from that garbage, I will never understand. At least my parents made their money honestly in the carpet industry.
Lex
December 19, 2023 at 8:08 am
What to do in Ukraine is really an insane problem to campaign on. You cannot sum up a strategy in a sound bite. Do we need to find a way to end the war? Absolutely. But there are good, bad, and terrible ways to do it, a terrible way would be anything like what Biden did in Afghanistan. Biden himself cannot follow any policy advice because he and his administration are too impotent to implement sound foreign policy. A good Ukraine policy finds some way for it not to be a win for the Russians and for the war to end as soon as possible. Letting Russia feel like they got a win is almost as dangerous as letting the war continue. Any intelligent sound bite will sound uncertain. The best sound bites are the lies that basically say we can have our cake and eat it too.
Michael K
December 19, 2023 at 10:33 am
Remember, the Afghan withdrawal was initiated and begun during the Trump administration, and like Iraq, there is never an easy or “good way” to leave a destroyed war-torn nation. But Trump and GOP seem to be betting on Putin – who is delighted by the Republican refusal to support Ukranian sovereignty.
Dont Say FLA
December 20, 2023 at 12:40 pm
But Lex, everyone’s happy for the Russia vs Ukraine war. The longer the fight goes, the more Russia diminishes its own power and depletes its own resources. Nobody (outside Ukraine) really wants the Russia v Ukraine war to end until Russia is all used up. The longer that war goes, the more impotent Putin and Russia get. When Putin and Russia are 100% impotent, that’s when that war should end. Let’s just hope Ukraine doesn’t take Russia’s place as the regional bully.
Uhhh what did Biden do in Afghanistan? All’s he did was campagin on a promise to execute Trump’s exit strategy, which Biden did exactly that. Biden got the USA out of Afghanistan. Gracefully? No. Does it beat still being in a losing war in Afghanistan? Absolutely!
rick whitaker
December 20, 2023 at 6:47 pm
don’t say fla, loved your comment to lex. i agree 100%, lex won’t agree.
Richard Russell
December 19, 2023 at 10:26 am
Ronny, we’re both from Florida, but that does not mean you have to flip flop like a big fish on the war between Ukraine and Russia!
MH/Duuuval
December 20, 2023 at 10:51 am
Dee trying to figure out which side of Trump’s shadow on Ukraine he should pose.
Dont Say FLA
December 20, 2023 at 12:45 pm
Rhonda would probably need to extract himself from Trump’s cavernous butt crack in order to cast any shadow. But if he manages that, let’s shove that rodent Punxsutawney Phil up in there such that we can get an early Spring every year, forever and ever.
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