Disaster: Top Strategist Resigns From DeSantis Backed Super Pac Less Than One Month Before Iowa Caucuses

Breitbart ^ | AP

[Macho MAGA Man]

NEW YORK (AP) — The top strategist for the embattled super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ‘ campaign for the White House resigned Saturday night in the latest sign of trouble for the GOP hopeful less than one month before voting begins with Iowa’s kickoff caucuses.

Jeff Roe, the top adviser to Never Back Down, is the latest senior staffer to exit Never Back Down, which has been the largest outside group supporting DeSantis’ candidacy.

He announced his departure on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, hours after The Washington Post published a story focused on internal disputes and suspicions between Never Back Down, the campaign, and other DeSantis allies that included accusations of “mismanagement and conduct issues, including numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information.”

“I can’t believe it ended this way,” Roe wrote on X, sharing a statement in which he said he “cannot in good conscience stay affiliated with Never Back Down given the statements” in the story, which he said were false.

[Macho MAGA Man]

This should officially be the end of his campaign. Trump retruthed "It's Over referring to DeSantis.

[RedMonqey]

I like desantis but his time is in 2028, not 2024.

[cgbg]

Article: “Roe wrote on X, sharing a statement in which he said he “cannot in good conscience stay affiliated with Never Back Down given the statements” in the story, which he said were false.”

So I take it if the statements were true he would have stayed the course?

Lol.

[frank ballenger]

How many “shakeups” and “reboots” and “top aide resigns” have we read?

It’s actually upbeat to hear of so many of the DeSantis troops going home to spend more time with their families. The family has been under attack and it’s good to see this trend.
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦🐕🐈🥧🎄

[MotorCityBuck]

Keep up the Hopi-um.👢👢

[fhayek]

Was 2028. He should have bided his time. Attacking Donald Trump is not a good career move, considering Trump’s popularity among Republicans. I think Vivek had a better strategy here.

[bigbob]

Roe is well versed in losing campaigns and knows when to jump ship.

[wild74]

Not so he is moving on to set up DeSantis incoming administration for the next four years, that is what I heard anyhow, I’m telling you the dimwits have Trumps number he will either go to jail or agree to drop out of the race. Either way DeSantis will be ready.

[cgbg]

“DeSantis will be ready.”

...to “participate”

Lol.

[RedMonqey]

I agree. He’s probably already blown his chances with alot of people by going after Trump the way he’s done. Got bad judgement or bad advice.

[Macho MAGA Man]

(the dimwits have Trumps number he will either go to jail or agree to drop out of the race.)

Why would Trump drop out when he’s smoking the GOP contenders in the polls. He’s got the nomination wrapped up already. Trump isn’t a quitter.

[Mean Daddy]

Trump has been airing commercials in western Iowa with Gov. Kim Reynolds extolling his accomplishments. Master level trolling.

[Macho MAGA Man]

Why are you so sure Trump will go to jail?

[backpacker_c]

I wonder if this will cut off the source of talking points desantis supporters/nevertrumpers have been taking cues from, to attacking Trump from team desantis?

[Macho MAGA Man]

That’s a plausible theory.

[moovova]

His time is never. Sad, he coulda been a contenda’.

[Nifster]

You are delusional. DeSantos can wait forever. Doesn’t matter

[Runner4life]

Nut job

[poconopundit]

Thanks for this great news!  Jeff Roe tried to repeat his Lyin' Ted dirty trips on Iowa voters.

It's not going to work this time.  Trump has built a reputation as a man of action: someone who has deliver greatly on what We the People want.

So whether DeSantis and his fans realize it not, even in defeat the DeSantis campaign has done President Donald Trump and MAGA a favor.  By contrast, DeSantis helped highlight exactly what issues matter to MAGA supporters and thereby strengthened our movement and sharpened our ability to defeat the RINOS, Bidung, and the corrupt people destroying America.

To celebrate, I put a couple hours into a digital art meme called DeSantis and Napoleon at Fountainebleau.

[Bratch]

Jeff Roe Resigns from Ron DeSantis Super PAC After Staff Leaks Massive Turmoil Amid Campaign Collapse

December 16, 2023 | Sundance | 276 Comments

Following a scathing insider report of the turmoil within the campaign and SuperPAC for presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, chief strategist Jeff Roe resigns.

It is stunning to contemplate the starting point of $269,000,000.00 [and more since] has essentially done nothing except destroy the public image and brand of Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis.   No presidential campaign has ever amassed such a proactive funding war chest and blown it to smithereens before the first votes have even taken place.

Never Back Down Super PAC Chief Strategist, Jeff Roe, delivered the following statement via Twitter:

The Washington Post presented a scathing report [SEE HERE] outlining details provided by 22 people in the DeSantis campaign and Super PAC.   Within hours of that report being posted, Jeff Roe quit.

WaPo – […] With just weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, the experiment is now in tatters. The super PAC that funded almost all of the DeSantis advertising and field programs and much of the candidate’s travel and events has been sidelined by the people that created it.

[…]  Five senior officials have left Never Back Down since late November. Three officials with Roe’s firm were fired, and the board chairman and the founding chief executive both resigned, amid internal concerns about legal compliance. A verbal conflict from inside the group’s Atlanta offices became public, as did DeSantis’s own misgivings about the outside group’s leadership. The governor and his campaign staff have been frustrated by reporting on the drama around Never Back Down and critical of the group’s ad strategy, with DeSantis’s second campaign manager, James Uthmeier, publicly instructing donors to give elsewhere for TV ads.

Rather than a new playbook for presidential campaigns, the broader DeSantis project has exposed the dangers of depending on emerging loopholes in campaign finance law that allow candidates to turn over traditional election efforts to groups that can take donations of any size from corporations or individuals.

“The super PAC model of winning a presidential primary, I think, is staggering, if not on the ropes,” said one DeSantis donor. “And if you’re going to have a successful presidential primary campaign you need to be able to raise hard dollars.”

[…] On Saturday, a top official at Never Back Down elaborated on the firings in a statement that for the first time publicly suggested their rationale. “Following mismanagement and conduct issues, including numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information, senior officials were terminated,” said Never Back Down chairman Scott Wagner. “We don’t have time to indulge false narratives from those with ulterior motives.”

The Post asked employees for a response. A lawyer for the employees then contacted Wagner claiming his assertions were categorically false and he revised his statement, replacing the first sentence with: “Following some opinions regarding mismanagement and conduct issues, including some who believed there appeared to be numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information, NBD and some senior officials parted ways. ”

A representative for the three former employees declined to comment Saturday.

Three people familiar with the super PAC’s decision-making described reasons for suspecting the three fired officials of wrongdoing, but the organization did not provide clear evidence implicating them. Two other people familiar with the inner workings of the group said they are not aware of proof.

[…]  Still, some in DeSantis’s orbit are holding out hope for a comeback. During his first campaign for governor, DeSantis won despite shaking up his team late in the race.

“Clearly, we are underperforming. Clearly we haven’t lived up to the billing. But I do think this adaptive behavior is going to produce better results in the end,” said Dan Eberhart, a DeSantis donor. “Clearly, Haley has some momentum nationally. Clearly, Trump is lapping the field. But I think he’s got an underdog’s chance at pulling off a humongous upset.” (read more)

The DeSantis loyalists promise to keep swinging for the fences.  However, everything around their effort was/is built upon fraud, manipulation, deceit and astroturf.  This outcome should not come as a surprise to those who have followed along.

Almost everyone in the operation and in the promotion thereof, are retreads from the failed Ted Cruz campaign of 2016.  Someone in professional GOPe circles had the idea to enmesh the Never Trump group with the Bush team and try to build a brand image for Ron DeSantis that could co-opt the MAGA base.

It was a stupid strategy from the outset, made even worse by their tone-deaf missing of reality.  Tens-of-millions of core base voters have their eyes wide open now.  They are not going to destroy the movement, and the collapse of Ron DeSantis just shows how strategically smart the base voter has become.

At a certain point, the pretending hits the sunlight of reality.