Florida Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis voiced his agreement with former President Donald Trump on the controversial international issue of sending even more deadly weapons to Europe.
The former president on Tuesday condemned the Biden administration’s commitment to inject deadly cluster bombs into the Ukraine war. Trump declared “Joe Biden should not be dragging us further toward World War III by sending cluster munitions to Ukraine.”
The former president and 2024 frontrunner chided Biden to instead work toward ending the war and “horrific death and destruction being caused by an incompetent administration.”
DeSantis joins Trump in opposing cluster bombs for Ukraine.https://t.co/CocBMxA7FK
— Mavka Slavka 🧜♀️🌻 (@MavkaSlavka) July 13, 2023
It took just one day for DeSantis to express his concurrence with Trump’s position. He appeared on “The Howie Carr Show” and was asked by the host if he agreed with rivals who support sending cluster bombs to Ukraine or opposed the move.
Saying that providing cluster bombs to Kyiv “runs a risk of escalation,” the governor repeated his assertion that weapons that could lead to attacks on Russia should not be provided for Ukraine.
DeSantis criticized what he termed “an open-ended blank check” being provided for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “There is no clear objective for victory. And this is kind of dragging on and on.”
He further observed that the volume of weapons sent to the war zone “could diminish our own stockpiles and prevent us from being able to respond to exigencies around the world.”
Biden just returned from Lithuania where negotiations were ongoing at the NATO summit, and the primary topic was Ukraine.
Alliance leaders agreed on Wednesday to assist in building up Ukraine’s land, sea and air defenses in preparation for possible future conflicts with Moscow. What they did not agree on, however, is Biden shipping cluster bombs to the country.
These controversial weapons disperse multiple smaller bombs over a wide area. Many do not explode and may lay dormant for years while posing a threat to anyone who unsuspectingly handles them.
More than 120 nations signed a treaty banning their manufacture or distribution. However, the U.S. along with Russian and Ukraine are not signatories.
In the face of international condemnation, President Biden defended sending cluster bombs to Kyiv. He called it a “very difficult decision” and said the country is “running out of ammunition.”
