About that big DeSantis interview

Created
Thu, 20/07/2023 - 08:00
Updated
Thu, 20/07/2023 - 08:00
He’s not good at this Jonathan Chait points out that he just refuses answer questions and he does it so obviously that even gullible GOP voters can see it: Florida governor Ron DeSantis abandoned his policy of only speaking to Republican Party–aligned media by giving an interview to CNN’s Jake Tapper. Unfortunately, taking questions is just one part of doing an interview. The other part is answering them. DeSantis conspicuously refused to answer any of the most newsworthy questions posed to him. Tapper asked DeSantis if he would sign a national six-week abortion ban like the one he signed in Florida: “Yes or no, will you support that?” DeSantis did not say yes or no: Tapper asked if he would stop arming Ukraine or stop giving it financial support. DeSantis did not answer that, either. Instead, he framed the question as being about sending American troops there. “A vital national interest means we would send troops to Ukraine.” He eventually said, “I am not gonna diminish our stocks, and not send to Taiwan, and not gonna make us less capable to exigencies. And you have to care more about your own border than you do about foreign borders.” That sounds like a promise not to continue arming Ukraine, since any weapons sent to Ukraine would by definition come at the expense of domestic weapons stocks. But his answer was evasive rather than straightforward. Tapper asked if he would push Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make territorial concessions to end the war, and DeSantis said only…