Gov. Ron DeSantis is still answering process questions with under a month to go until the Iowa caucuses.
He’s contending he had no “control” over the Never Back Down super PAC that absorbed more than $82 million from his state-level political committee and that has hosted events around the country for months for his presidential campaign.
“Those are PACs that I don’t control or have any involvement in, in terms of any of the decisions that are being made and that’s just the way it’s set up. So I don’t know what happened and all that,” DeSantis said, adding that “there’s not been a single Iowan that’s asked me about any super PACs.”
Never Back Down has seen a number of key departures in recent weeks, including strategist Jeff Roe, DeSantis’ erstwhile roommate Adam Laxalt, interim CEO Kristin Davison and spokesperson Erin Perrine.
While DeSantis is downplaying the super PAC on the record, things have been chillier behind the scenes, with Never Back Down’s ad buys being criticized by the campaign itself. The free-spending committee burned through tens of millions of dollars, and wasn’t shy about asking for more. As far back as September, it was hoping to get $100 million more from donors.
The super PAC also raised eyebrows with a strategy memo before the September debate that urged the candidate to go on the attack against President Joe Biden, the “media,” Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie.
The super PAC also wanted DeSantis to defend Donald Trump against an attack from the former New Jersey Governor.
Though DeSantis is downplaying his symbiosis with the super PAC, it’s still a big part of his campaign. On Thursday afternoon, the group hosts a “Kosher Deli Drop By” in Des Moines for the Governor, who spent the earlier part of the day at events hosted by his campaign. Throughout the six days the Governor has just spent in Iowa, the campaign and committee have traded custody of the candidate for reasons that have never been explicated.
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