Ben Shapiro Takes Thinly-Veiled Shot at Tucker Carlson, J.D. Vance Over Ukraine: ‘Demagoguery’ Comes At ‘Pretty High’ Cost

Isaac SchorrJul 17th, 2023, 12:04 pm
 

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro took a thinly-veiled shot at Tucker Carlson and Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) over their approaches to debating the war in Ukraine on Monday, musing that “demagoguery” comes at a “pretty high societal cost.”

Last Friday, Carlson hosted a series of Q&As with Republican presidential candidates, sparring with some — and most notably former vice president Mike Pence — over their perspectives on the conflict.

“I’m sorry Mr. Vice President, I know you’re running for president. You are distressed that the Ukrainians don’t have enough American tanks. Every city in the United States has become much worse over the past three years,” declared an incredulous Carlson during a contentious exchange with Pence. “Drive around, there’s not one city that’s gotten better in the United States and it’s visible. Our economy is degraded, the suicide rate has jumped, public filth and disorder and crime have exponentially increased, and yet your concern is that the Ukrainians, a country most people can’t find on a map, who’ve received tens of billions of U.S. tax dollars, don’t have enough tanks.”

“Tucker, I’ve heard that routine from you before,” noted Pence in his reply before arguing, “Anybody that says we can’t be the leader of the free world and solve our problems at home has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on Earth.”

Taking Carlson’s side over the weekend, Vance submitted that “these people with the Ukrainian flags in their bio” are “obsessed” with cutting social security in order to send more money to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Shapiro appeared to come to the aid of Pence and others of his mindset on Twitter Monday morning.

“Ukraine is becoming a litmus test for Republican candidates because of the bad-faith argument that if you think we must fund Ukraine in its war against Russia, you don’t care about American poverty. This is wrong. The two issues are not connected,” argued Shapiro. He continued:

First off, pouring money into poverty-ridden areas does not result in prosperity. That has nothing to do with Ukraine. “Government spending means prosperity” is a lie. Half the people now promoting that lie know it and have spoken out openly against it in the past. You can be skeptical of Ukrainian military aid while STILL being in favor of entitlement reform.

Second off, the notion that America has no interests in Ukraine is untrue. We have an interest in the Russian military being defanged so they do not invade surrounding nations, thus threatening global supply chains and strengthening American opponents. We have an interest in deterring China from invading Taiwan.

But we are now stuck in this weird binary strawman situation in which we are told that either we must fund Ukraine “until they win, as long as it takes,” without defining winning or “as long as it takes”; or “we must stop the war in Ukraine” without defining what “stopping” looks like (does it mean withdrawing all aid, thus leading Russia to take Kyiv?).

What about the position that we have interests in Ukraine, that they do not match the Ukrainian interests entirely, and that we should fund Ukraine so as to prevent their takeover while pushing for a peace agreement that cedes certain territory to the Russians while granting security guarantees to the Ukrainians?

All nuance is lost in politics pretty quickly. It’s always much easier to malign your opponents as uncaring about their fellow Americans. But demagoguery comes at a pretty high societal cost.

A Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted last month found that 56% of Republicans favor the U.S.’s continued aid of the defense of Ukraine.

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