Former Vice President Mike Pence seemed to step in it big time with the base, not to mention Tucker Carlson, during the interview he had at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa on the subject of Ukraine. Many thought if his campaign hadn’t been sputtering before, he might have just done it in there. He also got into trouble for attacking former President Donald Trump after the Special Counsel’s indictment last week, and voters in New Hampshire rebuked him, calling him a “sellout.”
But it sounds like fellow candidate Chris Christie may just be trying to one-up Pence for the “worst Ukraine take” among the Republicans in the 2024 race.
CHRIS CHRISTIE ON UKRAINE WAR: “We haven’t done enough. I think that President Biden has certainly done better than President Trump.” pic.twitter.com/MY1xxaWHzO
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 8, 2023
Christie said that his position on Ukraine was that we haven’t “done enough.” Then he completely went over the slide and said that Joe Biden had done better on Ukraine than Trump.
What more would Christie want us to give? We’re already given massive amounts of money and weapons to Ukraine, with no end in sight. There have also been questions about where some of those weapons are ultimately ending up. As I wrote last month, the Department of Defense Inspector General issued a concerning report on the problems of tracking the weapons. How long is that going to continue as we pour out our money, reducing our own stores and ability to defend ourselves in the process?
Then how does he suppose that Biden has done better than Trump? That’s just factually off-kilter. The Russians didn’t invade under Trump, they knew better. They invaded under Biden because they saw his weakness in the Afghanistan withdrawal, his talk of “minor incursions” being possibly acceptable, and how he backed off on sanctions over Nord Stream 2. Add to that the weakness Russians saw from Obama/Biden in 2014 when they went into Crimea.
Christie claimed that two-thirds of a recent audience for him was “supportive” of his position on Ukraine. Was it a Republican or Democratic audience? Because it doesn’t sound like a very accurate assessment of what Republicans would think. If he thinks that’s what Republicans think, he’s not listening to most Republicans, or frankly most Americans. A new poll by SSRS says that most Americans — 55 percent — don’t want to authorize new aid to Ukraine.
But it says something about how out of touch Christie is with the base when he’s supposedly campaigning for the Republican nomination, yet he goes on CNN and MSNBC and bashes Trump. Exactly what Republicans does he think he’s reaching on those networks with a base that is still strongly supportive of Trump?
Chris Christie demonstrating he has his finger firmly on the pulse of the Republican electorate, is on CNN talking about his pilgrimage to Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/rLeckLNz1X
— a newsman (@a_newsman) August 8, 2023
Christie went to Ukraine to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky, presumably to look presidential and like he had some foreign policy knowledge/experience. But again, with this, he shows how he has no idea what the base of the party is thinking and/or what’s best for the U.S.
Christie also said he thought Trump committed crimes, which is also not going to be helpful for him with voters. But like Pence, he seems fixated on his own issues with Trump rather than looking at the greater question of weaponization and how to stand up to that from the Democrats and get back to the rule of law and not the two-tier system of justice.
