Former top GOP strategist Brendan Buck joined MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera on Monday to discuss the widely panned, homophobic ad shared by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) campaign over the weekend.

“So that ad was released on June 30th, the last day of Pride month,” noted Cabrera after showing a brief clip from the ad.
“Brendan, your reaction first to the DeSantis campaign ad, especially, again, at the end of Pride month. Do you see that resonating with voters?” Cabrera asked the former top adviser to House Speakers John Boehner (R-OH) and Paul Ryan (R-WI).

“No, I don’t. And it’s the kind of thing that you would expect from a fringe candidate, not the person who is second in the race. You know, the most notable alternative to Donald Trump,” Buck responded to the ad, adding:

I don’t think it’s good politics. Look, the Republican Party has had a bad history on these issues, but I’m fairly confident that we’ve moved forward quite a bit. And that what Ron DeSantis is talking about is not the future of the Republican Party.

The one caveat that I will say that maybe this is, there is some strategy here for Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis’s entire brand has been built around making enemies. Getting people on the left, not to like him. And if I’m looking for a rationale for this, it’s that he was throwing out more red meat to stir up controversy, to remind people that he has made a lot of enemies on the left. Who your enemies are is currency in the Republican Party today.

“So that might be what he’s up to. But long-term politics, someone who trying to make the case that he is a credible, electable alternative to Donald Trump, it makes absolutely no sense,” Buck concluded.

The ad was shared online by The DeSantis War Room Twitter account and its content focused around DeSantis boasting of the trans community fearing his policies.

“This is undeniably homophobic,” responded Richard Grenell, the first openly gay White House Cabinet official, who served in the Trump administration.

Watch the full clip above via CNN.

The post DeSantis’s Homophobic Ad Trafficking In Specific Kind of ‘Currency In the Republican Party Today,’ Argues Former Top GOP Aide first appeared on Mediaite.

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