A super PAC backing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis slammed former president Donald Trump’s town hall appearance on CNN on Wednesday evening, as the two men prepare to clash in the 2024 Republican presidetial primary.
A host of former Trump administration officials started the Never Back Down PAC to boost a potential 2024 candidacy by the Florida governor. Super PACs are not allowed to coordinate with candidates even if they boost a particular candidate, but they are allowed to spend nearly unlimited amounts of money.
Mr DeSantis is widely expected to announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president, but has yet to do so. Still, Never Back Down PAC slammed Mr Trump for his performance on CNN Wednesday evening, at an event moderated by Kaitlan Collins.
“On the same day Ron DeSantis was assailing Joe Biden’s border crisis, Donald Trump was on CNN attacking DeSantis and lying about finishing the border wall,” Erin Perrine, the communications director for the super PAC, said in a statement.
“The CNN townhall was, as expected, over an hour of nonsense that proved Trump is stuck in the past. After 76 years, Trump still doesn’t know where he stands on important conservative issues like life and the 2nd Amendment. How does that Make America Great Again?”
Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked Mr DeSantis, whom he endorsed in the 2018 Republican primary for governor of Florida, as the two seem primed for a clash. Similarly, Mr Trump has reeled in multiple endorsements from Republican members of Congress from Florida.
A recent CBS/YouGov poll showed that Mr Trump beats Mr DeSantis by 36 points among Republican primary voters. Other candidates such as former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former vice president Mike Pence trail far behind the two men.
The former president has stayed in the race even as he faces multiple investigations and was arraigned last month for alleged hush money payments.
