Ron DeSantis stands by homophobic Trump attack ad: ‘Totally fair game’
Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis has doubled down on a homophobic anti-Trump advert, describing it as “totally fair game”.
The Florida governor was criticised on Friday (30 June) after an account linked to him – DeSantis War Room – posted a video that celebrated his anti-LGBTQ+ record while attacking former president Trump for his 2016 pledge to “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ+ citizens”.
The video, which was condemned by the LGBTQ+ conservative group, Log Cabin Republicans, who described it as “divisive and desperate”, showed several references to movies and TV shows, including American Psycho and Peaky Blinders, alongside headlines describing DeSantis’ legislative attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.
Those connected with Peaky Blinders have since said they “strongly disapprove” of the use of its clips, which were reportedly “obtained without permission”.
DeSantis, however, has doubled-down on the advert, claiming on conservative commentator Tomi Lahren’s YouTube show that it was “totally fair game” to criticise Trump, and that he disapproved of the fact that the former president had seemingly supported LGBTQ+ rights.
Referring to the fact that Trump had previously supported trans women taking part in the Miss Universe contest, but has since made anti-trans statements, DeSantis said he would describe “Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream… because he’s now campaigning saying the opposite.”
The governor then bragged that he had always “been very clear that we believe in protecting the rights of our girls”, and that his campaign is “fighting back [against] gender ideology”.
He added that it is “an attack on women’s rights more broadly to say that gender is fluid, and an attack on truth itself”, and that trans rights are a “social fad”.
Former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg ridiculed the advert shortly after it was posted, telling CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday (2 June): “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 bodybuilders.
“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.”
Since announcing his presidential candidacy in May, DeSantis has continued his war on “woke” culture, including the introduction of yet more anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Florida.
The attack on LGBTQ+ Floridians has become so severe that the Human Rights Campaign declared a “state of emergency”, urging queer people to avoid travel to the area and warning of increased violence.
