GOP candidate Scott supports Ukraine war effort, but not with a blank check
MASON CITY — As Ukraine’s leader is going to Washington today to pitch for more funding in their war against Russia, one Republican presidential candidate says he supports funding their cause, but not with a blank check.
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott says supporting Ukraine is in the best interest for the United States. “My short answer is that America deserves to know what is our vital national interest in Ukraine. My answer is that supporting Ukraine degrades the Russian military, and that is in our best interest.”
Scott says America can’t just hand over a blank check to Ukraine. “We must know where every penny is being spent, and we need to follow the money, but we have been effective in degrading the Russian military. Degrading the Russian military with the high price of Ukrainian blood, in my opinion, is saving US military lives. I will make that trade. Our resources for saving American lives.”
Scott says it’s important to make sure Ukraine contains the Russian military and hold off any expansion of the war to other surrounding countries. “With Article V of NATO, ‘all for one and one for all’. If they hit NATO territory, it changes the entire calculus and troops on the ground. One of the ways we reduce the likelihood of that is to eliminate the threat from the Russian military by degrading it so that the NATO territory contiguous with Ukraine is safer because Russia doesn’t have the capacity, the resources or the weaponry to hit them and take out all of us.”
Scott says supporting Ukraine is doing immediate good as well as long-term good for the US. “We are actually breaking the new ‘axis of evil’ which is China, Russia and Iran, and you just saw the little fella from North Korea over in Russia as well. We know there’s this rising axis of evil, and that goes along with BRICS, which is the new coalition of countries trying to find the way to replace our dollar as the reserve currency, and then prepare to challenge us militarily.”
Scott made his comments during a campaign stop in Mason City earlier this week.
