Global Courant
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s surprise visit to Ukraine on Thursday revealed strong divisions within the GOP over US involvement in the country’s defense against Russia.
And it provided a stark contrast between Pence and his old boss, former President Donald Trump, who led their party in a more isolationist direction.
The first candidate in the overcrowded 2024 Republican presidential field to visit Ukraine, Pence directly opposed the emerging “America First” wing of modern conservatism and sought to position himself as the party’s leading champion of aggressive foreign policy that the party has determined for decades.
“I truly believe that now more than ever we need leaders in our country who articulate the importance of American leadership in the world,” Pence told NBC News in Kyiv. “Since the days of Ronald Reagan, the American people have stood with those who fought back to defend their own freedom.”
The visit came as many conservatives have called for severing ties with Ukraine, which has received hundreds of billions of dollars in aid and weapons from the Biden administration. They argue that the money is better spent in the US, that the real fight for freedom against progressivism is at home, and that the fight with Russia is a distraction from the more important fight with China.
Trump, to whom Pence remained loyal until their feud during the January 6 uprising, praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, said he would end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible — which would almost certainly require Ukraine to make major concessions — and refused to saying whether he wanted Ukraine or Russia to win, even when he was repeatedly pointed to the question last month during a CNN town hall.
“Shockingly, almost the entire GOP field supports Biden’s strategy of blind support for Ukraine,” Vivek Ramaswamy, the tech entrepreneur who has become an unexpectedly strong presidential candidate, said in a memo posted to Twitter this month: “I disagree and predict this will become *the* main differentiating issue in our primaries.”
But Pence said his visit to Ukraine and meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy only “strengthened my resolve” and “made me better able to go home as I speak to the American people about the vital importance of American support to to repel Russian aggression.”
The former vice president has highlighted Ukraine more than any other Republican nominee and plans to connect Ukraine’s current battle against Russia with the American War of Independence when he celebrates July 4 in Iowa next week, according to his campaign.
“There can be no place in the Republican Party leadership for apologists for Putin,” Pence said in a speech marking the anniversary of the Russian invasion in February.
Liberal critics say Pence helped Trump make his mark on the GOP, so his attempt to undo it now is too little too late.
But Peter Feaver, a former top National Security Council official in the George W. Bush White House and prominent conservative foreign policy expert, said the visit to a war zone by a major presidential candidate is an “exciting event” that Pence could help “jump”. out of the pack, at least over Ukraine, “for people in the party like him who want the GOP to keep its traditional foreign policy values.”
But he acknowledged that “the most animated part of the base” seems to be with Trump.
A majority of Republican primary voters – 52% – said they would be less likely to support a candidate who favors sending more money and guns to Ukraine, according to the latest NBC News pollwhile 28% said they would be more likely to support that candidate.
At first, support for Ukraine enjoyed broad bipartisan support in the US. But a year and a half after the war, Republicans are 30 percentage points more likely than Democrats that Washington is oversupporting Kiev, according to Pew Research.
While Pence’s visit received positive reviews from traditional conservative outlets like the National reviewothers criticized him for making the trip, calling him a “fraud” and a RINO – “Republican in name only” – and mocked Pence because she happened to be in Kiev at the same time as climate activist Greta Thunberg, a favorite right-wing villain.
But for the most part, conservative media outlets ignored the visit, reflecting Pence’s low ranking in the polls and underlining how difficult it will be for him to pull the party back to its foreign policy roots.
“I didn’t know there were voters in the Republican primary in Kiev,” conservative commentator and former judge Andrew Napolitano told the streaming show Real America’s Voice. “He should spend his time in New Hampshire where Donald Trump beats him 51% to 5%.”
Still, Feaver, now a professor at Duke University, said Pence’s emphasis on Ukraine could force the other candidates to tackle an issue they would otherwise prefer to avoid because it divides their base.
“It will not change Trump. Trump is unwavering on that subject. But it puts a lot of pressure on DeSantis to better define himself,” said Feaver. “DeSantis launched Ukraine with that response to Tucker Carlson that was framed really badly, then backtracked and has been sending conflicting messages ever since.”
DeSantis drew criticism in March when he told the former Fox News host that the “territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia” was not a major American interest. He quickly bounced back by calling Putin a “war criminal” and saying Ukraine has a right to Russian-occupied territory.
Meanwhile, the rest of the field of candidates — including former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, South Carolina senator Tim Scott and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie — say they support continued aid to Ukraine, though no one has emphasized the issue that much. as pennies.
Foreign policy is rarely a central issue in presidential elections, let alone partisan primaries, but depending on which faction is victorious and who makes it to the White House will set the tone for Republican Party policy and possibly US policy.
“I don’t think it’s decisive in the primary. But I think it’s decisive in governing,” said Feaver. Whoever is president will be saddled with the baggage they accumulate in the primaries.
