Tucker Carlson, Pence clash over support for Ukraine

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday elicited boos at a major Iowa conservative gathering as he made the case for strong U.S. support for Ukraine.

Pence sat down with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for an event hosted by the Family Leader, and the two men clashed over the former vice president’s staunch support for U.S. assistance for Ukraine in its war against invading Russian forces.

“I believe that it is in the interests of the United States of America to continue to give the Ukrainian military the resources they need to repel the Russian invasion and restore their sovereignty,” Pence said, drawing some boos from those in attendance in Des Moines.

Carlson, an avowed skeptic of U.S. support for Ukraine, comparatively was applauded by the crowd as he made the case that American cities have regressed while Congress and the White House provide billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine.

“You are distressed the Ukrainians don’t have enough American tanks. Every city in the United States has become much worse in the last three years…. Where’s the concern for the United States in that?” Tucker asked to cheers.

Pence dismissed Carlson’s “routine” as a false equivalence.

“Anybody that says that we can’t be the leader of the free world and solve our problems at home has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on earth,” he said. “We can do both.”

The two men also shared a tense exchange as Carlson raised the issue of the persecution of Christians in Ukraine, pressing Pence repeatedly on the topic even after the former vice president said he raised it with a religious leader and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a recent visit to the country.

Pence has emerged as perhaps the most outspoken GOP presidential candidate in favor of providing aide to the Ukrainians, breaking sharply from the likes of Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who have suggested U.S. support for Ukraine is not in America’s interest.

The U.S. has provided billions of dollars in military and financial support for Kyiv since Russia first launched its unprovoked invasion in February 2022.

Pence has repeatedly argued that while it is not America’s war, the fight in Ukraine is part of a broader struggle for freedom abroad that is in U.S. interests. He has been critical of the Biden administration for the pace of providing military equipment to Ukraine to fight Russian forces.

“If Vladimir Putin overruns Ukraine, I have no doubt that in a short period of time that Russian military is going to cross the border of a NATO country that our armed forces will have to go and defend,” Pence said.

“I never want to see American armed forces in Ukraine,” he added. “I want to give the Ukrainian military what they need to fight and repel the Russian invasion.”