With the Biden administration poised to ask Congress for an additional $24 billion in aid to Ukraine, candidates on stage at the first 2024 Republican presidential primary debate were asked if anyone would end support for increasing funding to the war-torn country.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who were positioned in the center of the eight candidates since they are second and third in polling behind former President Donald Trump, quickly responded.
Mr. DeSantis said that American support should be contingent on Europe pulling its weight.
Mr. Ramaswamy said that he would not approve additional aid to Ukraine.
“I would not, and I think that this is disastrous that we are protecting against an invasion across somebody else’s border when we should use those same military resources to prevent the invasion of our own southern border here in the United States of America,” Mr. Ramaswamy said.
“We are driving Russia further into China’s hands. The Russia-China alliance is the single greatest threat we face,” he continued, adding that he finds it “offensive” that “professional politicians on the stage” have traveled to Ukraine and not to locations in their own country.
“I think we have to put the interests of Americans first,” Mr. Ramaswamy said.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who had multiple heated exchanges with Mr. Ramaswamy throughout the debate, defended his visit to Ukraine.
“All right. Look, I did go to Ukraine. And I went to Ukraine because I wanted to see for myself what Vladimir Putin’s army was doing to the free Ukrainian people,” Mr. Christie explained.
“I want you all to look around this arena tonight and imagine that every one of these seats was filled. And if every one of them was filled, there would still be 2,500 more children outside to make over 20,000 who have been abducted, stolen, ripped from their mothers and fathers and brought back to Russia to be programmed to fight their own families,” he continued.
“They have gouged out people’s eyes, cut off their ears, and shot people in the back of the head, and then gone into those homes and raped the daughters and the wives who are left as widows and orphans. This is the Vladimir Putin who Donald Trump called brilliant and a genius,” Mr. Christie said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence took issue with Mr. Ramaswamy’s assertion.
“Anybody that thinks that we can’t solve the problems here in the United States and be the leader of the free world has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on Earth,” Mr. Pence said.
“We can do both. We’ve done both,” he continued.
Mr. Pence referenced the Reagan Doctrine, which he said made it clear “if you’re willing to fight the communists on your soil, we'll give you the means to fight them.”
“If we do the giveaway that you want to give to Putin his land, it is not going to be too long before he rolls across a NATO border. And frankly, [the] men and women of our armed forces are going to have to go and fight him. I want to let the Ukrainians fight and drive the Russians back out to Russia.”
Mr. Ramaswamy pushed back by arguing, “The real threat we face today is Communist China, and we are driving Russia further into China’s arms.
“The Russia-China military alliance is the single greatest threat we face. Nobody in either political party’s talking about it,” he warned.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who also served as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., remarked that “the American president needs to have moral clarity, they need to know the difference between right and wrong, they need to know the difference between good and evil.”
Less than 3.5 percent of the U.S. national defense budget has been given to Ukraine, Ms. Haley noted.
“If you look at the percentages per GDP, 11 of the European countries have given more than the U.S. But what’s really important is, go back to when China and Russia held hands, shook hands before the Olympics and named themselves unlimited partners. A win for Russia is a win for China.”
Ukraine is a front line of defense against Russia, Ms. Haley believes.
“Putin has said, ‘Once Russia takes Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next.’ That’s a World War. We’re trying to prevent war,” she said.
Later in the exchange about Ukraine, Mr. DeSantis said that as president, “your first obligation is to defend our country and its people. “
He criticized the Biden administration for sending money to Ukraine while not securing the southern border.
“I am gonna declare it a national emergency. I’m not going to send troops to Ukraine but I am going to send them to our southern border,” Mr. DeSantis said. “When these drug pushers are bringing fentanyl across the border, that’s going to be the last thing they do. We’re going to use force and we’re going to leave them stone-cold dead.”
