DeSantis say ‘We stand with Kayleigh’ as they slam Trump for attacking his former press secretary
An outside group backing Ron DeSantis has found an unlikely secret weapon: former Trump spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany.
It urges supporters to get behind her after Donald Trump, her former boss, abused her on social media.
It comes after Florida governor himself came to McEnany’s defense and called the former White House press secretary, one of Trump’s top aides.
And the attack has already cost the former president one endorsement after a New Hampshire state representative switched allegiance to DeSantis over the ugly attack.
Now Never Back Down, a super PAC backing DeSantis, sees an opportunity to hammer Trump for his lack of loyalty to one of his administration’s most prominent figures.
It has launched a fundraising campaign calling for a united Republican Party that rejects mudslinging.
“Trump has just turned on Kayleigh McEnany, the courageous former White House press secretary who expertly defended him against vicious, hateful media jackals,” reads a fundraising email.
An outside group backing Ron DeSantis has found an unlikely secret weapon: former Trump spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany. She is pictured with husband Sean Gilmartin and their daughter Blake Avery
“Trump talks a lot about ‘loyalty,’ but will turn on anyone any day — even conservatives who have worked tirelessly to defend him.”
The “Stand with Kayleigh” campaign targets new donors with a small dollar, the group says. And so far, the current average push donation is $12.50.
McEnany joined the administration senior year. Love her or hate her, she quickly became a media sensation.
Opponents accused her of spreading untruths from the White House podium, but Trump supporters loved the way she spoke for them in clashes with journalists.
Since leaving office, she has continued to pour out her praise for Trump on Fox News, occasionally peppered with harsh truths.
Earlier this week, she discussed polling data from Iowa that suggested DeSantis had narrowed the gap to leader Trump.
McEnany briefly discussed recent Iowa polls suggesting that DeSantis is narrowing the gap with the former president since formally announcing his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination last week.
“The Desantis team would say polls just came out showing we’ve closed the nine-point gap since we announced it in Iowa,” she said on Fox News.
Yet Trump is hugely ahead, but they say they are closing the gap. If you look at the polls, Trump was 34 in Iowa and it’s now 25. That’s double digits.”
Even her careful drafting of the data, reminding viewers that he quoted the DeSantis team’s interpretation and that they were still far behind, wasn’t enough to appease her former boss.
Kayleigh ‘Milktoast’ McEnany just gave the wrong poll numbers on Fox News. I’m up 34 points on DeSanctimonious, not 25 points,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform, using his nickname for DeSantis while misspelling the term “milquetoast.”
Now Never Back Down, a super PAC backing DeSantis, sees an opportunity to hammer Trump for his lack of loyalty to one of his administration’s most prominent figures. DeSantis speaks with wife Casey during a campaign stop in South Carolina
“While 25 is great, it’s not 34. She knew the number had been corrected upwards by the group doing the poll. The RINOS & Globalists can have her. FoxNews may only use REAL stars!!!’
DeSantis was quick to seize on it as a vehicle for his message that he’s pushing hardline policies without Trump’s drama.
He said she was one of the best appointees in an administration that made mistake after mistake when choosing staff.
“She’s a Harvard-educated lawyer. She is an absolute killer and she ate the press alive,” he said in a podcast conversation with the editor of the New Hampshire Journal.
And so for him to attack her. You know, I thought that was really, really bad.’
Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, he added, were tired of that “pettiness.”
“They don’t like that at all,” he said. You know, we have big problems to deal with and we should focus on Joe Biden and his failures. That’s what I’m doing.’
Earlier, New Hampshire State Representative James Spillane said he supported Trump.
Spillane told NHJournal that he withdrew his public endorsement of Trump and supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in response to Trump’s treatment of the popular Fox News personality.
“Trump just turned on Kayleigh McEnany, the courageous former White House press secretary who expertly defended him against vicious, hateful media jackals,” the Never Back Down PAC says in a fundraising email.
McEnany joined the Trump administration last year. DeSantis said she was one of the top appointees in an administration that made mistake after mistake in selecting personnel
“I can no longer support former President Trump,” he told the New Hampshire Journal. “I am officially withdrawing my endorsement as his most recent attack on Kayleigh McEnany is incomprehensible and incomprehensible.”
Trump showed no signs of giving up nicknames on Thursday night. He christened his main rival and former Arkansas governor “ADA Hutchinson” in a Fox News town hall with Sean Hannity.
DeSantis arrived in South Carolina on Friday, the third stop as he tours early primary states.
A 500 strong crowd waited to hear him in Gilbert, just outside the capital Columbia. Among them are supporters and the curious.
“DeSantis is the real alternative to Trump,” says business development manager Mike Kelly. “He’s got everything Trump has without the downside, without the drama.”