As DeSantis returns, controversy over an anti-Trump video campaign shared

Jul. 4—As Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis returned to march in two Fourth of July parades in New Hampshire on Tuesday, his campaign faced bipartisan criticism for sharing a video that accused former President Trump of being too sympathetic toward transgender people.

The DeSantis War Room team shared the video on Twitter on Friday. A constitutionally conservative media group calling itself "Proud Elephant" produced it.

"To wrap up 'Pride Month,' let's hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it," the DeSantis group wrote as an intro, mocking Trump as an LGBTQ champion.

The video criticized Trump for comments he made in support of the transgender community at the Republican National Convention in 2016 a month after the mass shooting at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida, which left 49 people dead.

About 25 seconds into the 1-minute, 13-second video, it pivots to a dark montage of photos and videos of DeSantis spliced with images of shirtless men with buffed bodies and scenes from several masculine male characters such as Brad Pitt in "Troy."

The DeSantis images are of his anti-LGBTQ actions such as one headline that read, "DeSantis signs draconian anti-trans bathroom bill."

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is openly gay, attacked DeSantis for the video during an interview on CNN.

"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," Buttigieg said, "and just get to the 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? 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?"

Republican presidential rival and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said the DeSantis camp's tactic is "small" while Americans want the next president to take on the big issues.

"It is a teenage food fight between Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump and I don't think that is what leaders should be doing," Christie said.

Campaign: It's not homophobic

Christina Pushaw, the rapid response director for the DeSantis War Room Twitter account, defended the video, insisting that it was not homophobic.

"We wouldn't support a month to celebrate straight people for sexual orientation, either ... It's unnecessary, divisive, pandering," Pushaw responded on social media. "In a country as vast and diverse as the USA, identity politics is poison."

The Log Cabin Republicans, a group that represents LGBTQ conservatives, condemned the video, saying it was venturing "into homophobic territory."

"Today's message from the DeSantis campaign War Room is divisive and desperate. Republicans and other common sense conservatives know Ron DeSantis has alienated swing-state and younger voters," they tweeted. "Conservatives understand that we need to protect our kids, preserve women's sports, safeguard women's spaces and strengthen parental rights, but Ron DeSantis' extreme rhetoric goes has just ventured into homophobic territory."

While campaigning in New Hampshire, where voters tend to support abortion rights, DeSantis has said little about his anti-abortion record that included signing a law that outlaws abortion after there is a fetal heartbeat.

Instead, DeSantis has focused on his record of cutting taxes and government red tape while reopening his state back up during the COVID-19 pandemic quicker than most states including New Hampshire.

Likewise, DeSantis could choose not to emphasize here his stances against LGBTQ issues such as the "Don't say gay" law he signed that bans schools from teaching about gender or sexual orientation through third grade.

DeSantis has proposed an administrative rule to extend that ban through high school.

In March, New Hampshire's Republican-led Legislature was unable to pass a parental rights bill (SB 272) that would make teachers when asked to tell parents if their children had discussions about or had taken actions regarding a different gender identity.

Gov. Chris Sununu has signed laws banning discrimination based on gender identity in public accommodation, housing and employment along with anti-bias protections for students.

Last week, the Legislature passed and sent to the governor a bill for New Hampshire to join 14 other states that ban the "gay panic defense," which allows an offender to mitigate punishment for having been moved to kill someone who was had a gender identity other than their biological sex (HB 315).

klandrigan@unionleader.com