It must be humiliating to be losing so badly to someone who’s repeatedly said Barack Obama is the current president. But that’s what’s happening to Ron DeSantis. This time last year, some six months before he’d even formally launched his 2024 campaign, the Florida governor was the next great, very white hope for the Republican Party, while Donald Trump had turned into Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes. Now their fortunes have flipped, and DeSantis’ supporters are starting to have buyers’ remorse.
In a bit teased out by Raw Story, NBC News has a new report on what’s up with Never Back Down, the DeSantis super PAC that’s stuck by his side, even as he’s been felled by unflattering nicknames and footwear choices. A recent meeting descended into petty in-fighting. Instead of hashing out a plan to save their guy, members almost came to blows between the PAC’s top consultant, Jeff Roe, and longtime DeSantis confidant Scott Wagner.
“You have a stick up your a*s, Scott,” Roe told Wagner during a budget discussion.
“Why don’t you come over here and get it?” Wagner replied. He then rose out of his chair, Markwayne Mullins-style, before being restrained à la Bernie Sanders.
They have every reason to be on-edge. Though DeSantis has tended to place second in polls to Trump, it’s a very distant second. What’s more, a new contender, Nikki Haley, has been eclipsing him in some polls, which is to say trailing an insurmountable amount behind her old boss. In fact, a Washington Post/Monmouth University poll from last week had DeSantis in fifth in New Hampshire. That’s left some contributors angry about contributing at all.
“I’m a bit agitated these guys have spent all this money for no return,” one DeSantis contributor told NBC News. “You don’t just keep throwing money at RadioShack.”
Remember RadioShack? At one point the electronics retailer was a staple of every mall, selling everything from personal computers to CB radios to teeny-tiny doohickeys that only die-hard techies would ever know what to do with. Many of them shuttered in the mid-aughts, but technically they’re still around, although they’re even harder to find than someone who thinks Ron DeSantis will be president in 2024. In fact, comparing the “Don’t Say Gay” guy to RadioShack may be an even sicker burn than “Meatball Ron.”