MSNBC's Katie Phang brands DeSantis 'a national security risk' for what he called Russia-Ukraine war

When Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to clarify his position with regard to Russia’s war on Ukraine, DeSantis responded.

Florida Governor @RonDeSantisFL answers our Ukraine questionnaire:

“While the U.S. has many vital national interests – securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural,… https://t.co/1I2elVi6hI

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 14, 2023

Here’s the first part of DeSantis’ answer:

“While the U.S. has many vital national interests – securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party – becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them. The Biden administration’s virtual “blank check” funding of this conflict for “as long as it takes,” without any defined objectives or accountability, distracts from our country’s most pressing challenges.

Without question, peace should be the objective. The U.S. should not provide assistance that could require the deployment of American troops or enable Ukraine to engage in offensive operations beyond its borders. F-16s and long-range missiles should therefore be off the table. These moves would risk explicitly drawing the United States into the conflict and drawing us closer to a hot war between the world’s two largest nuclear powers. That risk is unacceptable.

A policy of “regime change” in Russia (no doubt popular among the DC foreign policy interventionists) would greatly increase the stakes of the conflict, making the use of nuclear weapons more likely. Such a policy would neither stop the death and destruction of the war, nor produce a pro-American, Madisonian constitutionalist in the Kremlin. History indicates that Putin’s successor, in this hypothetical, would likely be even more ruthless. The costs to achieve such a dubious outcome could become astronomical.

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One of the parts of his response that stuck out most to people was his characterization of the war as “a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia.” Is that what it is? Depends on whom you ask. But one thing is for sure: him using that term doesn’t make him a risk to U.S. national security.

If you’re MSNBC host and NBC/MSNBC anchor and legal contributor Katie Phang, though, you believe it does:

If DeSantis thinks that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a “territorial dispute,” he is a national security risk to the United States. https://t.co/ol9oVSlSkv

— Katie S. Phang (@KatiePhang) March 14, 2023

Come on, now.

Go back and reread what you just wrote. https://t.co/qm1iuy94BT

— Drew Shirley Sports (@realdrewshirley) March 14, 2023

And then reread it again and keep rereading it until you realize how insane it sounds.

National security risk? I guess we should just start arresting people who disagree with our foreign policy?

If an insufficiently hard line vs Putin is a crime, I have news about Barack Obama, Joe Biden, & Hillary Clinton. https://t.co/TbplvMcBv2

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) March 14, 2023

No kidding. We’re old enough to remember flexibility and phone calls from the 1980s and reset buttons and minor incursions.

This is nuts. Foreign policy disagreements do not constitute “national security risks” https://t.co/wyjcdJH1ul

— Scott Howard (@ConservaMuse) March 14, 2023

I disagree with DeSantis on the issue, but this rhetoric is completely nuts.

People can disagree on how engaged we should be in a foreign war without being a "national security risk." The US isn't even at war!

Shades of Woodrow Wilson's Sedition Act here. https://t.co/XnTWwuTSQL

— Mike Coté (@ratlpolicy) March 14, 2023

Or at least shades of the usual intellectual offerings from MSNBC.

A mind is a terrible thing to MSNBC. https://t.co/7ZqtE3lkmC

— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) March 14, 2023

Ain’t that the truth.

Try not to be this stupid, people. There is no requirement, whatsoever, to make dumb statements like the one below https://t.co/AeIVUlhZgr

— Invisible Constituent (@JustGreggo) March 14, 2023

It may be too late for Katie, but it’s not too late for everyone else.

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