macho man

George Santos blasts Ron DeSantis’ latest campaign ad: “The gayest crap I’ve ever seen”

By · 16 comments · Updated on January 26, 2024
George Santos and Ron DeSantis
George Santos and Ron DeSantis (Photo: US Gov/Shutterstock)

Just for once, New York Rep. George Santos and Transportation Secretary are in agreement about something: The awfulness of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

On Friday, to coincide with the end of Pride Month, the DeSantis campaign released its latest advert. It made the bizarre claim that Donald Trump is pro-LGBTQ, which sets him apart from DeSantis.

Yes, DeSantis is now trying to peddle his homophobia and transphobia as a plus to voters.

The short video attempted to contrast Trump’s pro-LGBTQ policies with DeSantis’ stance. It showed Trump waving a rainbow flag and a clip in which he said Caitlyn Jenner was welcome to use any bathroom she wished at Trump Tower.

In actual fact, Donald Trump took consistently anti-LGBTQ actions in the White House, including banning trans people from the military and opposing the Equality Act.

By contrast, the DeSantis advert attempts to promote the Governor of Florida as a macho alpha male. Images of him are spliced with images from Peaky Blinders, American Psycho and muscle-bound men. It promotes his opposition to drag shows and gender-affirming care for minors.

Shots of DeSantis laughing play against snapshots of criticism of him as “evil” and “dangerous”.

Rep. Santos blasted the advert, saying, “The ‘manly’ Chad alpha male image’s are some of the gayest crap I’ve ever seen. Can you debate Trump on foreign policy, economy, national security and public safety? Oh wait… Ron loves War and amnesty…”

Richard Grenell, another gay Trump supporter and former acting Director of National Intelligence in 2020, also blasted it. He said it was “undeniably homophobic”.

In a later tweet Grenell called it “insanely homophobic.”

The Log Cabin Republicans, a gay conservative group known for endorsing some fringe far-right nonsense in recent years, also slammed it.

“Today´s message from the DeSantis campaign War Room is divisive and desperate. Republicans and other commonsense conservatives know Ron Desantis has alienated swing-state and younger voters,” the group said in a tweet, adding that DeSantis´ “extreme rhetoric goes has just ventured into homophobic territory.”

Pete Buttigieg

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was asked about the advert during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union yesterday.

“I’m going to choose my words carefully, partly because I’m appearing as secretary, so I can’t talk about campaigns. And I’m going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled-up shirtless bodybuilders, and just get to a bigger issue that is on my mind whenever I see this stuff in the policy space, which is, again, who are you trying to help?” Buttigieg said.

“Who are you trying to make better off? And what public policy problems do you get up in the morning thinking about how to solve?” Buttigieg asked

“I just don’t understand the mentality of somebody who gets up in the morning thinking that he’s going to prove his worth by competing over who can make life hardest for a hard-hit community that is already so vulnerable in America,” Buttigieg concluded.

Santos returns to court

On a separate note of George Santos-related news, the scandal-hit gay Rep. made his second, brief appearance in court on Friday (June 30). He faces 13 federal charges relating to wire fraud and money laundering. He denies any wrongdoing.

The five-minute Long Island courthouse hearing focussed mainly on the case schedule. The prosecution team presented the Santos defense team with 80,000 pages of documents. Santos’ team asked for time to read it all. The judge set the next court appearance for September 7, when Congress is in recess.

Related:

Flailing Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis just sent out his most desperate (and transphobic) fundraising plea yet

Give it up, dude!

Log Cabin Republicans dump new ambassador after she says gays “gross” her out

Isabella Riley Moody was chosen by Outspoken to represent the organization.

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