The ‘maverick’: Ron DeSantis launches new ‘Top Gov’ campaign ad bashing ‘corporate media’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis features himself getting in political dog fights with reporters in a new campaign ad that casts the Florida governor as ‘Maverick.’

Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, a former TV journalist, tweeted out the new online ad Tuesday, on a day when DeSantis is on the ballot without facing a primary opponent.

Some top Republican Party figures are hoping DeSantis will suit up for what would be a kinetic battle against former President Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination, but for now he trying to muddy potential Democratic opponents in Florida.

The ad shows DeSantis sporting a bomber jacket and sunglasses, and training off-screen recruits on ‘taking on the corporate media.’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis casts himself as ‘Maverick’ from the Top Gun reboot in a new online ad

The ad identifies DeSantis with the Tom Cruise character in the film

DeSantis said first lady Casey DeSantis came up with the idea for the spot

DeSantis regularly goes after reporters in his press conference, which feature supporters who cheer on his attacks. One clip in the ad features him fighting over the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ label critics slapped on a bill DeSantis signed into law

Ready for takeoff: The ad also features DeSantis’ son, who the governor called the real Maverick

DeSantis 2018 Florida campaign web site summarized his Navy service, where he was a military prosecutor and also defended military clients. ‘During his active duty service, he supported operations at the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay and deployed to Iraq as an adviser to a U.S. Navy SEAL commander in support of the SEAL mission in Fallujah, Ramadi and the rest of Al Anbar province’

He then describes the ‘rules of engagement’ – a military term of war – about taking incoming from reporters.

‘Don’t fire unless fired upon. But when they fire, you fire back with overwhelming force,’ says DeSantis.

DeSantis was deployed in Iraq and at the military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, although he served as a Navy JAG lawyer, not as a fighter pilot in real life.

He touted the spot in an appearance, where he says it is is son, who appears in the video, who is the real ‘Maverick’ and fighter jet afficianado.

‘He is Maverick, not me. He is Maverick. He makes that very clear whenever we talk about it,’ said DeSantis.

He said his wife came up with the concept for the ad. ‘Well, I think it was something that my wife initially thought about. Because you talk about the dog fighting and it’s like, OK, well, what is our dog fighting? It’s dealing with corporate press,’ he said.

The ad features snips of DeSantis tangling with reporters and cutting them off during press conferences.  

‘Does it say that in the bill?’  

”I’m asking you,’ the reporter says.

 ‘I’m asking you to tell me what’s in the bill,’ DeSantis scolds.

It was a short clip from an exchange in March when a reporter pressed him about the so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, which bans discussion of gender identity in younger grades in Florida schools. 

The WFLA reporter had prefaced his question by asking about ‘what critics call the “Don’t Say Ga” bill’ as it was on the Senate floor. 

DeSantis had choice words in the interview for state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who faces a primary against Rep. Charlie Crist and two other candidates for the right to challenge DeSantis in November.

‘He’s taking away a woman’s right to choose. He’s taking away freedom of speech. He’s taking away our opportunities to teach in our classrooms. That is not freedom — that’s oppression,’ Fried said of the governor.

‘We stood in the way of lock-downers like Nikki Fried who opposed every decision I made to protect people’s rights,’ he said.

‘And when she says you don’t have freedom of speech in the classroom, understand what she means. She wants to use our schools to indoctrinate students into her ideology. And our position on schools is that the purpose of the school system is to educate kids, not to indoctrinate kids,’ he said.

The ad with DeSantis strapping on a flight suit comes after some media commentators said he has begun walking, standing, and even gesticulating like Donald Trump.