GOP strategist Brendan Buck appeared on MSNBC with host Ana Cabrera on Monday, July 3rd, to discuss the latest attack ad released by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign on June 30th, the last day of Gay Pride month.
Cabrera asked Buck if he believed the ad would resonate with voters. Buck is a seasoned GOP advisor, having worked with two previous GOP Speakers of the House, Paul Ryan, and John Boehner.
Buck said he did not think it would resonate and that it appeared to be something more expected from “a fringe candidate” than the 2nd place runner-up for the GOP nomination. He also acknowledged that the Republican party has a negative history when it comes to the acceptance of gay people and that these views don’t represent the future of the party. He also suggested that DeSantis has a pattern of making enemies and turning that publicity around into support for his agenda items.
In Florida, that worked well when he had a strong basis of support in the populace as well as the state legislature, but nationally is a different story, Buck suggested. Buck also said that the ad “makes absolutely no sense” when considering the longer term.
The original Twitter post suggested Donald Trump “has done more than any other politician” to celebrate Pride month before sharing the 73-second video. The video itself shares clips of headlines that indicate Trump supports gay Americans and brief comments by Trump himself where he defends Caitlin Jenner’s use of a ladies’ restroom. The music is cheesy techno which switches to a darker bass beat when it begins to recount how much DeSantis is disliked by the radical LGBTQ activists and their supporters.
It was widely panned for failing to distinguish between rational gay Americans and those who use their identities as political props to indoctrinate children or hijack women’s sports. The ad ends with a picture of DeSantis as an alligator, suggesting he would be an aggressive combatant against the extremes of the radical left.
