‘MISCHARACTERIZED’

Ron DeSantis Makes U-Turn on Ukraine After Bipartisan Pushback

Just last week, he told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the conflict amounted to a “territorial dispute.” He appears to have changed his tune.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made a U-turn on his Ukraine stance this week, telling Piers Morgan that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is “a war criminal” who needs to be held “accountable” for invading the Eastern European country. DeSantis even went so far as to call Russia “basically a gas station with a bunch of nuclear weapons.” Just days prior, he told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the conflict amounted to a “territorial dispute” and that the United States had no business intervening any further. The governor faced stark pushback from both sides of the aisle for the comments last week—and almost immediately walked back his position during his interview with Morgan by saying the statements were “mischaracterized”—and that Russia was “wrong” both to invade Ukraine last year and annex Crimea in 2014. DeSantis did, however, reiterate his calls to cut off funding for the war effort and never to send U.S. troops into the country.