DeSantis Throws Shade at His Own Super PAC Amid Chaos: ‘I Don’t Have Control Over It’

Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP

Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis threw shade at a Super PAC supporting his campaign during an interview with RealClearPolitics’ Philip Wegmann.

“I don’t have control over it, and that’s the problem with how this is set up. If I controlled it, I would own it, and I would obviously have run it in a good way,” said DeSantis when asked about the drama at Never Back Down, the original Super PAC dedicated to backing his White House bid.

“It’s just an independent group, and so the dynamics there are things that I just have no visibility into whatsoever,” he noted.

On Sunday, The New York Times published a report about the goings-on at Never Back Down, which they said has been embroiled in a feud with the campaign it supports.

From the article:

The DeSantis candidacy has been hobbled for months by an unusual and unwieldy structure — one top official lamented that it was a “Frankenstein” creation — that pushed the legal bounds of the law that limits strategic coordination and yet was still beset by miscommunications. Those structural problems compounded a series of strategic miscalculations and audacious if not arrogant assumptions that led to early campaign layoffs. Profligate spending and overly bullish fund-raising projections put the campaign on the financial brink after only two months.

The candidate himself, prone to mistrusting his own advisers, did not have a wide enough inner circle to fill both a campaign and super PAC with close allies, leaving the super PAC in the hands of newcomers who clashed with the campaign almost from the start.

Jeff Roe, formerly the chief strategist for Never Back Down, resigned mid-month. His exit followed those of CEO Chris Jankowski in and chairman Adam Laxalt in November.

Never Back Down recently canceled all of its reserved ad space in Iowa and New Hampshire, ceding the airspace to the newly minted Fight Right PAC.

“We are thrilled to have Fight Right and others covering the air for Governor DeSantis while we work the ground game in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and beyond,” declared chairman Scott Wagner. “Never Back Down is laser focused on its core mission — running the most advanced grassroots and political caucus operation in this race and helping deliver the GOP nomination for Governor DeSantis.”