Ronnie vs. Donnie

Our boy Tucker Carlson did some real journalism this week. He submitted a questionnaire to the leading Republican presidential candidates covering the hot topics of the day. That “Tuckie” is not simply a blowhard, he (or his staff) actually works at his craft.

He received very different responses on Ukraine from the DeSantis and the Trump campaigns. These were not “off the cuff” statements requiring context, but written, presumably thought-out, responses. DeSantis pretty much decried aid to Ukraine. “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.”

That must be music to Putin’s ears. “Hang in there, Vlad. America will bail out on Ukraine just like it did on South Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. After all, Marjorie Taylor Greene said at CPAC that Zelensky wants America’s sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine. A leading presidential candidate and a leading Congressional nut case won’t stand in your way as you gobble up your neighbors in ’territorial disputes.’ Hitler got away with taking over the Sudetenland and then Czechoslovakia in ’territorial disputes’ back in 1938 and no one did anything about it.”

Trump being Trump, he had a more terse reply. “When I’m president again, I will negotiate a solution to this in one day.” Will that be before or after you get Mexico to build The Wall and pay for it, Donnie?

Donnie, of course, doesn’t worry about being a hypocrite. When his past statements contradict what he says today, the past was “fake news” or “alternative facts”.

Ronnie will have to work on that part of his game. As a Congressman in 2014, he criticized Obama for his “lackluster response” when Russia took over Crimea and Donbas.

DeSantis backed a 2015 resolution that called on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine and authorized military assistance to Kyiv. Apparently, that was “fake news” or “alternative facts”.

The Republican presidential candidates debates should be interesting next year. Ronnie vs. Donnie, I can’t wait.

By Ed Dufton