Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Amb. Nikki Haley got into a tense exchange over whether the U.S. should continue funding the war in Ukraine during Wednesday night’s GOP debate in Des Moines.
DeSantis claimed that ‘globalist’ Haley supported funding ‘salaries for Ukrainian government bureaucrats’ and ‘paid pensions for Ukrainian retirees’ with taxpayer dollars – something that she denied.
‘You can take the ambassador out of the United Nations, but you can’t take the United Nations out of the ambassador,’ he said.
She shot back that ‘do not have to choose when it comes to national security’ and explained that Ukraine funding represented a tiny portion of the defense budget – and argued DeSantis shouldn’t be trusted with math.
‘The best way to tell about a candidate is to see how they’ve run their campaign – he blew through $150 million,’ Haley said. ‘I don’t know how you do that.’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (left) and former U.N. Amb. Nikki Haley (right) got into a tense exchange over whether the U.S. should continue funding the war in Ukraine during Wednesday night’s GOP debate in Des Moines
Haley and DeSantis are in a tough battle for second place in the GOP race – hoping to take the other out in order to become former President Donald Trump’s primary opponent.
Trump has skipped every Republican debate and was headlining a Fox News town hall across town Wednesday instead of participating in CNN’s event.
‘You can take the ambassador out of the United Nations , but you can’t take the United Nations out of the ambassador,’ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said of Nikki Haley, who served as former President Donald Trump’s U.N. ambassador (pictured)
The issue of funding Ukraine was the first foreign policy question asked of the two rivals during the debate held at Des Moines’ Drake University.
Haley was asked by CNN’s Dana Bash if she believed DeSantis shared her commitment to Ukraine.
‘Nobody knows what he believes because when President Obama wasin office, he supported foreign aid to Ukraine,’ Haley answered. ‘Now he is copying Trump and trying the act like he doesn’t want to support Ukraine.’
She then argued that it was important to keep Ukraine’s war effort funded because it will keep Russia and China at bay.
‘This is about preventing war,’ she said.
‘If we support Ukraine, that’s only 3.5 percent of our defense budget,’ she said. ‘The Europeans have put in more than that and they should it’s their neighborhood.
‘But this is a pro-American, freedom loving country. And we better remember that you have to be a friend to get a friend. And we needed a lot of friends on September 12th. We’ve got to make sure that we’re having the backs of the right friends because if Russia wins, China wins,’ she continued.
DeSantis said that Haley is ‘basically a carbon copy of what Biden is’ and said they both supported an ‘open ended commitment.’
‘Here’s the thing. We don’t have enough resources being $35 trillion in debt to continue doing hundreds of billions of dollars. We’ve got to focus on our issues here at home, and we’ve got to deal with the top threat that we face, which is China.’ the Florida governor said.
Haley shot back, asking DeSantis voted to raise the debt ceiling as a member of Congress, if he was so concerned about government spending.
‘This is the lie they’re telling the American people over and over again,’ she said. ‘They’re saying you have to choose between Ukraine or Israel, or Israel and securing the border.’
She again repeated that Ukraine support was just 3.5 percent of the military budget and with Israel it amouted to 5 percent.
‘So you’re going to borrow that,’ DeSantis snapped.
Haley replied that supporting Ukraine, Israel and securing the border would cost ‘less than 20 percent of Biden’s green subsidies.’
‘You do not have to choose when it comes to national security,’ she argued.
DeSantis shot back: ‘She doesn’t articulate how this comes to an end.’
He also hit Haley for supporting aid packages, which he said included pensions and salaries of Ukrainian officials.
Haley said she supports sending ‘equipment and ammunition’ only.
‘But think about the fact that he is talking about where is this money going to come from, the best way to tell about a candidate is to see how they’ve run their campaign,’ she then said.
‘He has blown through $150 million. I don’t know how you do that, through his campaign,’ she continued. ‘He has nothing to show for it. He spent more money on private planes than he has on commercials trying to get Iowans to vote for him.’
‘If you can’t manage a campaign, how are you going to manage a country?’ Haley said, earning cheeers and applause.