DeSantis Snaps at Reporter When Pressed On What He Would Do Differently From Biden in Ukraine
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was profiled in the Times of London in a piece published Thursday that examined his presidential ambition — or, as Times US editor David Charter put it, “his worst-kept secret.”
DeSantis declined to say whether he would be running for president in 2024, despite the entire US media already crowning him a presumptive front-runner for the Republican nomination alongside former President Donald Trump, who declared his candidacy last year.
Despite DeSantis holding out, Charter pointed to several signs the Florida Republican is clearly plotting a run: they met for an interview at the Republican Party headquarters in Florida, not the state governor’s office, and DeSantis was surrounded by copies of his new memoir, which includes a not-so-subtly-titled chapter: “Make America Florida.”
The profile — a rare thing for DeSantis to subject himself to, but notably appearing in the Rupert Murdoch-owned Times — provides a fascinating look at the governor. It describes him as “personable and chatty” despite his reputation in the US press as awkward and unlikable.
In the interview, DeSantis chalks up that reputation to his work ethic.
“You’ll sometimes read stuff, like DC public gossip, they’re like, oh, you know, he’s not social. Because honestly, when I was in Congress, I wasn’t there to party. I didn’t want to be part of that scene,” he told the Times. “My job was to represent the people. So I would do my job and I would go to my office, sleep on the couch, wake up, do it the next day, and I didn’t really have time for any of the other stuff. I just wanted to focus on the task at hand. And now it’s, like, I’m not out dealing with political people unless I have to. If I’m going to be out, doing different stuff, I’d rather my wife be with me, or kids be with me. So that’s just the decision that you make.”
Charter did report that DeSantis showed “a flash of temper” at one point in the interview — when asked about Ukraine.
DeSantis recently criticized President Joe Biden’s Ukraine policy on Fox News as both showing “weakness” and being “a blank check policy.”
When pressed on the difference between his would-be Ukraine approach and Biden’s current policy, he snapped at Charter:
I ask about Ukraine and he says that “there’s a critique of Biden, and I think I’m sympathetic to it in the sense that, is our policy just do whatever Zelensky wants? Or do we have a concrete idea of what we’re trying to achieve exactly?”
When I ask him how it should be handled differently, he refers to Biden being “weak on the world stage” and failing at deterrence, but as that is not answering how it should be handled now, I ask again. DeSantis does not have anything to add: “Perhaps you should cover some other ground? I think I’ve said enough.”
The testy exchange is perhaps indicative of the tight rope Republicans are currently walking when it comes to U.S. support for Ukraine. Many Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), have argued for aid to Ukraine, a position that now runs afoul of the Trump-Tucker wing of the party that has taken to attacking Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, amid the bloody Russian invasion.
Read the full profile here.
