Ron DeSantis has largely abstained from returning fire on his biggest GOP rival, Donald Trump. He won’t even condemn him for Jan. 6. On Friday he finally went full-on. It wasn’t your typical hit job, though: Its argument was that Trump is too nice to the LGBTQIA+ community. It was wildly homophobic…while being wildly homoerotic, juxtaposing images of the Florida governor with images of muscled-up he-men (plus, for some reason, fictional serial killer Patrick Bateman, of American Psycho). It even earned the ire of Log Cabin Republicans. And it got dragged pretty efficiently by Pete Buttigieg.
Buttigieg on DeSantis video: I'm going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled up shirtless body builders.. pic.twitter.com/fbDpoEBrg7
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 2, 2023
The sitting secretary of transportation, who’s attacks on the right teem with seething wit, went on CNN’s State of The Union Sunday, where he was asked about the ad. After struggling not to roll his eyes deep into the back of his head, Buttigieg began with a quip.
“I’m going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled up shirtless body builders,” he said.
But then he got to “the bigger issue” at the heart of the DeSantis team’s bigoted ways, namely: “Who are you trying to help? Who are you trying to make better off and what public policy problems do you get up in the morning thinking about how to solve?”
He went on:
“We’re focused as an administration on how to get things done and make people better off. I spend my week traveling around the country to places that are benefitting from infrastructure funding. We’re in Appalachia and an eastern Kentucky that’s been wiped out by floods repeatedly and we’re bringing them highway funding that’s not only going to improve the road but also improve the dam and protect them from floods in the future. A few weeks ago we were in North Dakota where there was a railroad crossing that was a community headache for decades, and thanks to President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure funds we finally have the resources to do something about it. We’re going to make that better and not be a problem holding back first responders.”
He concluded: “These are the kinds of problems most of us got into government, politics, public service to work on. And I just don’t understand the mentality of somebody who gets up in the morning thinking that he’s going to prove his worth by competing over who can make life hardest for a hard-hit community that is already so vulnerable in America.”
It’s worth noting that the LGBTQIA+ community isn’t the only community DeSantis is trying to harm. His culture war antics are also costing all Floridians millions.