Republican split over Ukraine evident at Iowa summit

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A crowd of about 2,000 evangelical Christians in Iowa on Friday criticized Mike Pence after the former US vice president said it was in America’s best interest to continue providing arms and aid to Ukraine.

The audience reaction to Pence challenging Donald Trump for the party’s presidential nomination in 2024 underscored the sharp divide among Republicans over military support for Kiev. That division has raised doubts over whether Congress will approve more aid for Ukraine later this year.

Pence said, “I believe it is in the interest of the United States to continue giving the Ukrainian military the resources it needs to repel Russian aggression and restore its sovereignty.”

His answer was in response to tough questions from conservative pundit Tucker Carlson and former Fox News host at The Family Leadership Summit, an annual gathering of influential evangelical leaders in the key early voting state of Iowa.

Carlson — who was ousted from Fox this year after the cable news channel agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation case from voting machine maker Dominion — has been accused of attacking Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and accusing Russian One of the most prominent voices on the American Right to Praise is President Vladimir Putin.

The Iowa crowd cheered when Carlson told Pence: “Your concern is that the Ukrainians, a country most people can’t find on the map, who have received tens of billions of US tax dollars, don’t have enough tanks ? I think it’s a fair question to ask, where is the concern of the United States here?”

Pence replied, “That’s none of my concern.” “Tucker, I’ve heard this routine from you before, it’s none of my concern. . . Anyone who says we can’t be leaders of the free world, and solve our problems at home, Too short a view of the greatest nation on earth.

The back-and-forth testimony exposed a growing divide in the Republican Party between hawks and segregationists.

Opinion polls suggest that the US public’s support for aid to Ukraine has plummeted since the Russian invasion last year, with Republicans more likely than Democrats to object to more support. Last month’s Pew polling found that 44 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said the US was giving too much aid to Ukraine, compared to 14 percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents.

US President Joe Biden is expected to ask the sharply divided Congress to approve more funding for Ukraine later this year. Biden has insisted that a spending package will be approved by lawmakers, even as Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, have expressed opposition.

Biden told Western allies in Lithuania at the conclusion of a NATO summit this week: “We will not waver. , , We are going to help Ukraine build a strong, capable defense on land, in the air and at sea, which will be a force of stability in the region and will fend off any and all threats.

Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina also raised the case for more military aid at Friday’s summit, while Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, shrugged when Carlson asked who had built the Nord Stream. The pipeline was blown up.

“I mean, I don’t know. Do you know who did this? Haley said.

Carlson replied: “Seems very clear that this was supported by the Biden administration.”

The Kremlin has accused the US of destroying the pipeline, a claim swiftly rejected by the White House and US and European intelligence agencies.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is second only to Trump among Republican voters, has tried to build on his position on Ukraine.

Earlier this year, he said the war was a “territorial dispute” and was not in America’s “vital interests”, but later retracted his remarks, calling Putin a “war criminal”.

On Friday, DeSantis told Carlson: “My criticism of the DC foreign policy elite is that they are creating a blank check policy without telling us when we will achieve our objective.”

“Now, because you disagree with the DC foreign policy elite, they try to discredit you and say, oh, you must be for Putin,” DeSantis said.

“I’ve always thought Putin is a bad guy. I still think he’s a bad guy. But that’s a different question. , , You have to make a decision about what is in America’s national interest.”

Trump, who has said he can end the war in Ukraine in a day, did not attend Friday’s evangelical conference in Iowa. The summit was hosted by Bob Vander Platts, a prominent Christian leader who has called on Republicans to embrace an alternative candidate in 2024.

Biotech entrepreneur and fund manager Vivek Ramaswamy, who introduced his long run to the presidency on Carlson’s now-canceled Fox News show, presented a more hardline stance on Ukraine at Friday’s conference. He said he could end the war by persuading Kiev to cede part of the Donbass region to Russia in exchange for Moscow breaking ties with Beijing and a US commitment to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO.

But Ramaswamy – who has moved steadily ahead in opinion polls in recent weeks – acknowledged that his position was not popular among the Republican establishment, telling Carlson: “To be really honest with you, I’ve had many discussions on this issue.” Have lost major donors, or potential donors.”