DeSantis Loses MAGA Support over Staff’s Attacks on Russia Hoax Questions
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s 2024 presidential campaign saw another setback over the weekend as the Republican candidate saw support withdrawn from top America First movement figures such as Mike Cernovich after DeSantis’s staff attacked him and others for asking questions about DeSantis’s position on the Russia hoax.
The incident started with Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House official, tweeting a clip of DeSantis — then a congressman — talking about then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into “Russian collusion” between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian agents.
“Putin, if you look at the operation they did with the spear-phishing and the hacking — that was really a third-rate operation,” DeSantis says in the interview clip, and continues, explaining:
It was not sophisticated. I think the House Intel report and the Mueller indictment kind of show that. But, man, what mileage have they gotten out of that? A lot of that is being driven by the president’s political opponents, both in the Democratic Party and the press — and I think that’s what bugs him about the issue is that it’s used to try to delegitimize his election victory. I personally think that the [House] Intel report and the indictment are credible in terms of assigning blame, culpability to Russia.
DeSantis, for what it’s worth, was responding to an indictment that Mueller had brought against several Russian actors for alleged interference in the 2016 election. This was before Mueller concluded his investigation with a report that ultimately cleared Trump, and it was before the 2018 midterm elections when DeSantis ended up winning the governor’s race in Florida. This interview was conducted well before even the gubernatorial primaries in 2018, where DeSantis won the Republican nomination thanks in large part to Trump’s endorsement of him.
Does Ron still believe in the sham Mueller report and the utterly ridiculous “Russia hacked the 2016 election” narrative? pic.twitter.com/y2uOpMeFOh
— Darren J. Beattie ἱ (@DarrenJBeattie) July 10, 2023
Beattie tweeted the clip with a question, asking if DeSantis still stood by what he said about this narrative in that interview.
DeSantis, then a congressman, was a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPCSI) and helped write the House Intelligence Committee report to which he was referring in the interview.
In response to Beattie’s tweet, DeSantis’s press secretary Jeremy Redfern attacked him — accusing Beattie of being “dishonest.”
Are you normally this dishonest, or is it something new?
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) July 10, 2023
Beattie and Redfern went back and forth quite a bit on Sunday evening over the clip in follow-up responses:
Not sure what is dishonest about it.
The clip is there for everyone to evaluate.
At the very least something to clarify given regime’s rampant abuse of national security pretext for political purposes
— Darren J. Beattie ἱ (@DarrenJBeattie) July 10, 2023
Sounded more like he was saying “I understand where Trump is coming from, the reports are being used by his political enemies to delegitimize his election,” but at the same time affirming the legitimacy of the Russia thesis
— Darren J. Beattie ἱ (@DarrenJBeattie) July 10, 2023
That kicked off a broader Twitter war among a number of folks on the right, seeing Cernovich — someone who had previously backed DeSantis — jump in and pressure Redfern for a specific answer on where DeSantis stood on the issue:
Clip showed DeSantis was supporting Trump while also co-signing the silly indictment against Russian hackers and the unproven claim that Wikileaks was a Russian operation. I would like to know if DeSantis still trusts the intelligence community’s findings.
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) July 10, 2023
Jeremy. Does Governor DeSantis believe that Wikileaks was a Russian operation? That’s the clip I am responding to.
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) July 10, 2023
DeSantis’s campaign, meanwhile, from its “War Room” account, tweeted out more of the clip of DeSantis on Fox News talking about that as a congressman, and accused Beattie of selectively editing off the end where DeSantis says “at the same time, I don’t think that had anything to do with the fact that he whooped Hillary Clinton and I also don’t think there was any Trump-Russia collusion. So there’s just all these issues that I think have been kind of intermingled by a lot of the people that want to damage him as president.”
This is 100% deceptive and @DarrenJBeattie knows it.
Right after this clip ends, @RonDeSantis mocked Russia’s pathetic hacking attempt — saying it didn’t “have anything to do with the fact that he whupped Hillary Clinton. I also don’t think there was any Trump-Russia collusion” https://t.co/BYG4QmHI0V pic.twitter.com/nELuJ4JBQF
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) July 10, 2023
DeSantis’s team, meanwhile, also noted in the broader back and forth that DeSantis helped write the HPSCI report in question:
Maybe you should ask Darren why he didn’t post the entire clip.
Btw – he was part of the intel committee that drafted the report. Maybe you should go read the report for yourself.
Meanwhile… pic.twitter.com/hNiPqz8Nio
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) July 10, 2023
But the nasty infighting between those on the right did not end there. When Cernovich kept pressing the question, DeSantis’s team shot back with personal attacks on him and Beattie.
Wait… I didn’t realize Trump fired this guy. 😂😂😂 https://t.co/ijMq0ggMnu pic.twitter.com/PkpkbMT2tC
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) July 10, 2023
Hahahahaha pic.twitter.com/CL0OuSu8jj
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) July 10, 2023
Then why don’t you read the report from the intel committee that then Congressman DeSantis sat on?
Calling me a “little bitch” doesn’t make you look tough. It makes you look petty.
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) July 10, 2023
After all that, Cernovich withdrew previous comments he had made favoring DeSantis in 2024, saying he now disavows those sentiments:
Do you believe it’s an effective communications strategy for Governor DeSantis’ spokespeople to insult people who have defended him repeatedly in the past?
Yes or No.
And if it’s No (it is), then start war gaming how you win based on a losing strategy.
Thank you. https://t.co/I9Fc3BjOVr
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) July 10, 2023
I expressly DISAVOW this in the strongest terms. https://t.co/ZszLGQijTT
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) July 10, 2023
I was wrong. https://t.co/I6uL3QvAEf
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) July 10, 2023
I take this back. https://t.co/N7VXJyhzZ6
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) July 10, 2023
This development comes after brutal headlines and polling continues to show DeSantis stalling out since entering the 2024 Republican presidential field.
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