At a significant Iowa conservative event on Friday, former vice president Mike Pence received jeers as he argued for robust U.S. support for Ukraine.
At a Family Leader event, Pence and former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson got into a fight over Carlson’s steadfast support for American help for Ukraine in its fight against invading Russian forces.
Pence added, to some boos from the audience in Des Moines, “I believe that it is in the interests of the United States of America to continue to give the Ukrainian military the resources they need to repel the Russian invasion and restore their sovereignty.”
The audience cheered Carlson, an outspoken critic of American aid to Ukraine, as he argued that American cities have deteriorated while Congress and the White House continue to fund Ukraine with billions of dollars.
“You’re upset that there aren’t enough American tanks for the Ukrainians. In the past three years, every city in the United States has gotten much worse. Where is there any consideration for the US in that?” Tucker invited applause.
Carlson’s “routine” was rejected by Pence as a faulty analogy.
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The persecution of Christians in Ukraine came up in the conversation between the two men, and Carlson pressed Pence on it repeatedly even after the former vice president claimed to have brought it up with a religious leader and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a recent trip to the country.
In contrast to Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who have argued that U.S. backing for Ukraine is not in America’s interest, Pence has emerged as possibly the most ardent Republican presidential candidate in favour of giving help to the Ukrainians.
Since Russia’s unjustified invasion began in February 2022, the U.S. has given Kyiv billions in financial and military support.
Pence has argued time and time again that, despite not being an American war, the conflict in Ukraine is a part of a larger conflict for freedom overseas that is beneficial to the United States. He has criticised the Biden administration for the slow speed at which Ukraine is receiving military hardware to counter Russian forces.
“If Vladimir Putin overruns Ukraine, I have no doubt that the Russian military is going to cross the border of a NATO country within a short period of time, which our armed forces will have to go and defend,” Pence said.
Adding, “I never want to see American armed forces in Ukraine,” he said. “I want to provide the Ukrainian armed forces with the tools they need to combat and thwart the Russian invasion.”
