Senior aids to Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign have reportedly distributed campaign ads produced by staff to anonymous social media accounts allied with the campaign, according to a new report.
A video criticizing former president Donald Trump’s previous support for LGBT Americans and expressing support for men participating in women’s sports, which subsequently went viral, is reportedly connected to the DeSantis campaign. As of Aug. 1, the video has been deleted by the original poster.
Another video criticizing the former president featuring the “wojack” meme character also reportedly stems from the DeSantis camp.
Both videos were reportedly released through a “War Room Creative Ideas” channel from encrypted messaging app, Signal. Screenshots of the channel were obtained by Semafor and authenticated by a second source familiar with the Florida governor’s presidential campaign.
🟡 SCOOP: Senior aides to Ron DeSantis oversaw the campaign’s strategy of laundering incendiary videos produced by their staff through allied anonymous Twitter accounts, @daveweigel and @ShelbyTalcott report.https://t.co/K04JcO1VcQ
— Semafor (@semafor) July 31, 2023
The “War Room Creative Ideas” channel is reportedly run by DeSantis’ director of rapid response, Christina Pushaw. Pushaw previously served as the Florida governor’s press secretary from May 2021 until August 2022 before serving on DeSantis’ 2022 gubernatorial reelection campaign and current 2024 presidential campaign.
According to screenshots of the Signal channel, DeSantis staffers reportedly praised the “wojack” meme video, originally posted by an anonymously-run “Ron DeSantis Fancams” account, also featured imagery of a Nazi Germany Sonnenrad. The second video has also since been deleted.
The DeSantis campaign’s director of research and data Kyle Lamb reportedly wrote “this belongs in the Smithsonian” regarding the aforementioned meme-video.
DeSantis’ director of rapid response reportedly told junior staffers to continue making meme-videos and subsequently distributed videos to anonymous accounts friendly to the Florida governor’s presidential campaign, Semafor reported.
Fellow former DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin was reportedly a member of the War Room group chat. In May, Griffin announced his resignation as press secretary and assumed a role on DeSantis’ presidential campaign.
Pushaw reportedly asked if staffers know “any Anons who might want” to share a “fun” video of former president Trump discussing China during a Fox News town hall.
“If we post it or a named influencer posts it, it might get noticed,” Pushaw reportedly wrote in the War Room chat.
The DeSantis campaign has not publicly confirmed or denied ownership of the aforementioned videos, which campaign staffers reposted from the anonymous accounts, according to the outlet.
During a Monday interview with Fox News, DeSantis commented on the LGBT and “wojack” meme-videos.
“These things get shared, or whatever — and look, I’m responsible for it. Don’t get me wrong,” DeSantis said. “But the idea that I was sitting there, like — oh, share this video? No. It’s a rapid response thing.”
