Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served in the presidential administration of George W. Bush, stopped by CBS’s Face The Nation on Sunday morning, where she spoke about some of the circumstances surrounding the ongoing war Russia is waging against Ukraine.
During her interview, she expressed support for what is, in general terms, the Biden administration’s stance in support of Ukraine, although she also pushed for further assistance. Concurrently, Rice specifically denounced the prospect of major presidential candidates ignoring or dismissing the needs that have emerged in Ukraine. Rice isn’t the only prominent Republican voice trying to rally support behind the U.S. aid for Ukraine. Recently, as the present conflict there reached a year in length, Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) did the same, discussing how what’s happening there, and more specifically, the defense that Ukrainian forces have been able to wage with U.S. weapons, serve the American interest of boosting global defenses against violence from the Putin regime. Romney and Rice both pointed to how the U.S., of course, has an interest in averting possibilities of conflict with Russia.
Assisting Ukraine is one method to go about pursuing that aim. Asked about comments from Trump himself and potential GOP candidate Ron DeSantis, who’s presently the governor of Florida, Rice said: “It is really important that whoever runs for president of the United States understands the essence of this conflict, the fact that we are defending not just Ukrainian independence, but we are defending a rules-based system that says, might doesn’t make right, you can’t just extinguish your neighbor. And, oh, by the way, for those who would say, oh, we ought to be concentrating on the Indo-Pacific because China is really our adversary, Xi Jinping is telling you what he thinks about that, because he is not only watching what is going on in Ukraine. According to our intelligence, apparently, he’s even considering getting in on the side of the Russians.”
Getting to some of the ramifications of possibilities that the war in Ukraine eventually turns out in Russia’s favor, Rice continued: “If the American people see a world in which Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have won this engagement, this first volley, if you will, in the larger strategic picture, and they see that Ukrainian independence has been extinguished, and they know that the United States could have done something about it, I don’t think that’s going to be a very good message for a future president to have to deliver.” Rice agreed with host Margaret Brennan that such was because “that problem will come to his desk,” meaning, at least in part, the threat of direct conflict could come closer in that hypothetical scenario. Watch Rice below:
