Chris Sununu: Money U.S. Spending to Defend Ukraine Is a 'Deal'

Governor Chris Sununu (R-NH), a potential 2024 contender, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the money the United States is spending to help Ukraine in the War against Russia is a “deal.”

Anchor Jake Tapper said, “According to CNN polls, about 40% of Republican voters are supporting Donald Trump right now, about 36% are supporting Ron DeSantis. You haven’t declared yesterday, so I guess my question is, that’s a big chunk of the Republican Party supporting people who disagree with you on how vital Ukraine is. Explain to a Republican voter out there, who is skeptical of why this is in the national interest, other than notions of the U.S. stands for freedom, why is this in the national interest to support Ukraine in the war?”

Sununu said, “Let’s walk through it. Yeah, so if you let Russia come in and walk over Ukraine, you put all of Eastern Europe at risk. You put all of our NATO allies there at risk. And then, when a NATO ally is now at risk, now you really risk having to put potential American troops on the ground, which nobody wants to see and shouldn’t happen. But if they’re starting to go after NATO allies in Eastern Europe, now that’s a much bigger problem. It sends a message to China, who wants to aggressively go after Taiwan, which creates a vast majority of the technology that we need for our everyday lives. And that puts our consumers at risk, our manufacturers at risk, it puts our economy at risk, if you allow that to happen. This will hit home very, very quickly. I’ve heard people say, well, you know, no blank checks. I agree with that. No blank checks. We’re putting about $50 billion of support in Ukraine. Understand this, $50 billion to not put a single troop on the ground, potentially defeat and decimate the Russian army, that’s less than 10% of our defense appropriation in just a single year. I’m the most fiscally conservative governor in the country, and I’m telling you, that’s a deal. That’s a good effort of backing our play and backing our allies’ play across the world.”

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