Once upon a time … U.S. Representative Ron DeSantis, from Florida, was a hawk when it came to national defense — as were most Republicans. When Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, DeSantis voted for a $68 million aid package for the Ukrainians, and he rightly dismissed the Russian-sponsored referendum, in which the Crimeans opted for annexation by Moscow, as “obviously a farce.”
In a May, 2015, interview with Fox News, he predictably blamed the ‘weakness’ of the Obama administration for the Russian invasion, contrasting it with what he referred to as Reagan’s policy of strength. “… if we had a policy which was firm, which armed Ukraine with defensive and offensive weapons so that they could defend themselves,” he opined, “I think Putin would make different calculations.”
Now the governor of Florida, DeSantis continued this theme after Russia’a invasion of the Ukraine proper last February. “I think that Putin would probably not have done this if he thought the United States was strong,” he said at a news conference, “but I think he thinks that the United States is weak because of the impotence of Biden’s administration.”
But that was then … and this is now — and DeSantis has a new slant on things. Earlier this week, in response to a questionnaire sent to him by Tucker Carlson (Fox News) the governor downplayed the war between Russia and Ukraine as…
