Chris Christie rips DeSantis’s Ukraine take: ‘Hopelessly naive or hopelessly cynical’
Ryan King
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Former New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie ripped Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) characterization of the conflict in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute.”
Joining a bevy of other Republicans speaking out against the Florida governor’s remarks, Christie contended that “DeSantis is either hopelessly naive or hopelessly cynical” with his take on the war in Ukraine, stressing that the conflict is a bloody war of aggression by Russia.
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“This is not a territorial dispute, as Gov. DeSantis said. A territorial dispute is when you take a survey of your property at home and your neighbor’s fence is 6 inches over your property line,” Christie told the Washington Examiner. “This is an authoritarian regime who is invading a sovereign democratic country and trying to take its land by force.”
Earlier in the week, Fox News host Tucker Carlson read responses from potential 2024 GOP aspirants to his questions about Ukraine. DeSantis argued that “becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia” is not in America’s vital national interests.
“While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness with our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis told Carlson.
Christie conveyed to Carlson that he viewed “Russia’s aggression against Ukraine [as] a national security issue that threatens our alliances and our standing in the world.”
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1635449514478784513?s=20
Other prominent Republicans, such as 2024 GOP hopeful and onetime U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Senate Republican Whip John John Thune (SD), and Sens. Lindsey Graham (SC), and Marco Rubio (FL), have publicly split from DeSantis on Ukraine.
“All we’re doing is helping the Ukrainians defend themselves,” Christie continued. “If America walks away from that leadership role in the world, believe me, that vacuum will be filled … by the Chinese and the Russians. And that will not make it a safer or more secure world. I think on this, Gov. DeSantis is either hopelessly naive or hopelessly cynical.”
DeSantis has been widely pegged in second place after former President Donald Trump by myriad polls of a hypothetical 2024 GOP primary.
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Christie also laid out a time frame for when he will decide on whether or not he will run in 2024.
“Next 45 to 60 days,” Christie said. “I think running for president of the United States is an intensely personal decision. And that’s one that anybody who’s considering it should have the right to make on their own, regardless of anybody else’s thoughts on it.”