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DeSantis Says ‘War Criminal’ Putin Should Be ‘Held Accountable’ Days After Saying Ukraine Not a ‘Vital’ U.S. Interest
Breitbart ^ | 22 Mar 2023 | JORDAN DIXON-HAMILTON

Posted on 03/22/2023 9:11:09 PM PDT by conservative98

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis toughened his stance on Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling Putin a “war criminal” who should be “held accountable” for the invasion of Ukraine, just days after he claimed the Ukraine war is not a “vital national interest.”

DeSantis angered Republican hawks, Never Trumpers, and neocons less than two weeks ago when he characterized the Ukraine-Russia conflict as a “territorial dispute” that is not a “vital” U.S. interests.

DeSantis told Fox News’s Tucker Carlson:

While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our border, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, 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.

After DeSantis’s initial comments, Never Trumper Adam Kinzinger (IL) dismissed DeSantis as being “in with the crazies,” and former GOP congresswoman Liz Cheney scolded DeSantis for seemingly forgetting “the lessons of Ronald Reagan.”

However, during an interview with Piers Morgan, DeSantis took a tougher position on the Ukraine conflict. In that interview, set to air on Fox Nation on Thursday, DeSantis branded Putin as a “war criminal” and demanded he be “held accountable” for invading Ukraine.

DeSantis also said his critics “mischaracterized” his use of the phrase “territorial dispute.”

“Well, I think it’s been mischaracterized,” DeSantis said when asked if he regretted using that language. “Obviously, Russia invaded (last year) — that was wrong. They invaded Crimea and took that in 2014 — That was wrong.”

DeSantis clarified that his remarks were about the fighting in Ukraine’s eastern border region.

DeSantis told Morgan:

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Russia
KEYWORDS: 1rdsownedbygope; berlinnazishappy; bidensneoconbuttboys; bribed; desanctimonius; desantis; freepers4biden; freepersforputin; globohomoagenda; meatballron; neoconron; neocons4biden; neoconshateamerica; paulryanapproves; piersmorgan; putin; switcheroo; ukraine; ukraineslushfund; ukrainewar; warpigs4desantis; zeeepeeershappy; zelensky; zelenskyworshippers
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To: conservative98

Are the two mutually exclusive? I mean its really not vital to our interests but Putin also seems to be brutalizing his enemy without much care for the written and unwritten rules of warfare.


41 posted on 03/23/2023 3:09:11 AM PDT by MrRelevant
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To: MrRelevant
Putin also seems to be brutalizing his enemy

I must be getting old. I remember when that was the very nature of war.

42 posted on 03/23/2023 4:06:28 AM PDT by BlackbirdSST (Trump or Bust!)
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To: conservative98

Hurry.. better elect trumps, the prez who stood befor Americans a bit more than three years ago and told us.. no travel (unvetted Syrians exempt), no gatherings of 10 or more (those burning cities exempt), billions to Pfizer, Moderna (while everyday working Americans did without).
You might surrender your last round and weapon to his 4Dchess, but his bumpstock ban shows his cards on 2A.
I watched people die alone in hospitals and homes, no funerals.
You are going to root for the man who handed fauci n birx the country…
But he wasn’t done.
To ensure perpetual tyranny… he gave them mail in ballots.
Showing up with truckloads of water, but still pushing big pharm n fauci lies are just a glimpse of how the left owned him.
I thought they would have gotten 2A erased had they let him win.
That was a miscalculation on their part…. Or
He and they are just kabuki all day n night.
Good cop bad cop… same ends.


43 posted on 03/23/2023 4:33:55 AM PDT by momincombatboots (BQEphesians 6... who you are really at war with)
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To: BlackbirdSST

Well i mean… summary executions of prisoners and launching kamikaze drones into the civilian population isnt quite the same as grinding down an enemy on the battlefield is it?


44 posted on 03/23/2023 5:15:32 AM PDT by MrRelevant
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To: MrRelevant
Well i mean… summary executions of prisoners and launching kamikaze drones into the civilian population isnt quite the same as grinding down an enemy on the battlefield is it?

I guess that depends on where your enemy stores his weapons. It's one of those age old Palestinian tactics.

45 posted on 03/23/2023 5:20:08 AM PDT by BlackbirdSST (Trump or Bust!)
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To: conservative98

Both statements are true and not in conflict


46 posted on 03/23/2023 5:21:34 AM PDT by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Juneteenth is inequality day )
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To: PGR88

He almost had me fooled. This is a really big mistake. I guess the GOPe and Ron’s neocon bosses did not like his response the first time.

Sorry Ron, you aren’t ready for prime time. We can see clearly now that you are controlled.


47 posted on 03/23/2023 5:33:57 AM PDT by dforest (All of America has derailed.)
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To: conservative98
"Putin is a war criminal" and "This is a territorial dispute" are not mutually exclusive or completely opposite.

"We need to send more money and weapons to (X) country" and "we should defend our own borders" are also not mutually exclusive. It's just that we should actually have the money we are sending across the world, not just an overactive printing press.

48 posted on 03/23/2023 5:43:32 AM PDT by Bernard (“the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God." JFK 1-20-61)
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To: conservative98
Unbelievable how the media distorts via cherry picking and how many people here are falling for it. Taking two words out of a comprehensive statement and generating controversy. It’s undeniably true that Russia and Ukraine are fighting over territory. Here’s the statement in full. It is rife with conservative positions.
While the U.S. has many vital national interests – securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within 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. The Biden administration’s virtual “blank check” funding of this conflict for “as long as it takes,” without any defined objectives or accountability, distracts from our country’s most pressing challenges. Without question, peace should be the objective. The U.S. should not provide assistance that could require the deployment of American troops or enable Ukraine to engage in offensive operations beyond its borders. F-16s and long-range missiles should therefore be off the table. These moves would risk explicitly drawing the United States into the conflict and drawing us closer to a hot war between the world’s two largest nuclear powers. That risk is unacceptable. A policy of “regime change” in Russia (no doubt popular among the DC foreign policy interventionists) would greatly increase the stakes of the conflict, making the use of nuclear weapons more likely. Such a policy would neither stop the death and destruction of the war, nor produce a pro-American, Madisonian constitutionalist in the Kremlin. History indicates that Putin’s successor, in this hypothetical, would likely be even more ruthless. The costs to achieve such a dubious outcome could become astronomical. The Biden administration’s policies have driven Russia into a de facto alliance with China. Because China has not and will not abide by the embargo, Russia has increased its foreign revenues while China benefits from cheaper fuel. Coupled with his intentional depletion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and support for the Left’s Green New Deal, Biden has further empowered Russia’s energy-dominated economy and Putin’s war machine at Americans’ expense. Our citizens are also entitled to know how the billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are being utilized in Ukraine. We cannot prioritize intervention in an escalating foreign war over the defense of our own homeland, especially as tens of thousands of Americans are dying every year from narcotics smuggled across our open border and our weapons arsenals critical for our own security are rapidly being depleted.

49 posted on 03/23/2023 6:19:30 AM PDT by Dilbert56
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To: BlackbirdSST

Or where they store their kids, medicine, food, etc. doesnt really matter…. Putin doesnt seem to care….and it is what it is

War is hell we get it…. My point is still stands…. Putin can be a war criminal and the conflict still isnt our business.

Ukraine isnt the “good guy” to be clear, but what is clear is Russia has simply decided attrition is the way to go and that means the rules of war have ceased to exist for the Russians.

Theyre kidnapping children lol.

https://nypost.com/2023/03/06/ukrainian-kids-kidnapped-by-russia-sent-to-re-education-camps/amp/

Seems normal. Guess the 10000 kids were being used as shields on the battlefield at the time ,right?


50 posted on 03/23/2023 6:25:24 AM PDT by MrRelevant
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To: momincombatboots

Lol. What you want is a dictator not a President. Its incredible how easily one can see the past when you live in the present. Hindsight… 20/20 … and all that good stuff. ANY President wouldve done what Trump did, including DeSantis. Period. To say otherwise is simply being disingenous. Sorry.


51 posted on 03/23/2023 6:31:30 AM PDT by MrRelevant
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To: Jane Long
What a horrid fit that cheap suit is.

Looks like he bought it off the rack at Men’s Wearhouse.

52 posted on 03/23/2023 9:09:46 AM PDT by Allegra
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To: Allegra

Yeah...it was a return, that a short guy brought back 😜


53 posted on 03/23/2023 9:13:04 AM PDT by Jane Long (What we were told was a “conspiracy theory” in 2020 is now fact. 🙏🏻 Ps 33:12 )
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To: Peter ODonnell

Well, the nukes protect Putin as long as he stays in Russia, or allied countries that won’t arrest him. He won’t be visiting his mistress in Switzerland anytime soon though.


54 posted on 03/23/2023 9:14:11 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: cowboyusa

“the 2 biggest threats, Cultural Marxism and Chi Com Communism.Same Marxist virus. Same threat. Russia is a distraction.”

Missing the forest for the trees. Who do you think spent decades arranging for our country to fall prey to that “cultural marxism”?


55 posted on 03/23/2023 9:16:21 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: The Old Hoosier

Yes, both statements can be true, even though some people can’t grasp that.


56 posted on 03/23/2023 9:21:59 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: BlackbirdSST

“It’s one of those age old Palestinian tactics.”

Yes, lying about your enemy to excuse your war crimes is an old Palestinian tactic.


57 posted on 03/23/2023 9:23:52 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Boogieman
Yes, lying about your enemy to excuse your war crimes is an old Palestinian tactic.

What's the point of twisting my words into your lie? Does your momma give you a gold star?

58 posted on 03/23/2023 9:46:32 AM PDT by BlackbirdSST (Trump or Bust!)
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To: conservative98

The two are not mutually exclusive.


59 posted on 03/23/2023 9:50:37 AM PDT by Fury
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To: PGR88
Mouthing the same slogans as everyone else. That’s not the way to distinguish yourself, Ron.

DeSantis is weak sauce. He's proving to be not ready for prime time on the national scene.

Stay in Florida Ron, you seem to be doing a good job down there. Endorse President Trump and stay out of national politics.

60 posted on 03/23/2023 9:54:27 AM PDT by CrosscutSaw
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