TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A brand new advert from supporters of Ron DeSantis suggests the governor joined the Navy proper after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror assaults — a part of an effort to reboot his flailing marketing campaign to focus extra on his private biography than political accomplishments.
It states he volunteered “to serve America in fight fatigues as a Jag with the Navy Seals in Iraq,” when in actuality he didn’t go to Iraq till 2007, 4 years after the U.S. invaded Iraq and captured Saddam Hussein, and nearly a 12 months after Hussein’s execution.
The advert was produced and launched by the By no means Again Down tremendous PAC.
“Not solely did Governor DeSantis signal as much as serve within the Navy shortly after the Iraq Struggle started, he sought out and volunteered for a deployment with SEAL Staff 1 in the course of the troop surge,’ mentioned David Vasquez, nationwide press secretary for By no means Again Down. “Governor DeSantis is the one veteran on this race and the one candidate who understands the sacrifices service members and their households make.”
Anders Croy, communications director for DeSantis Watch, a PAC campaigning in opposition to DeSantis, mentioned, “No quantity of soppy focus advertisements can distract from the truth that underneath Governor DeSantis, Florida is the nation’s main inflation hotspot, insurance coverage charges have gone by means of the roof, and company income have skyrocketed whereas staff and seniors wrestle to pay the payments. You possibly can reset a marketing campaign however you may’t reset Governor DeSantis’ failures as a frontrunner.”
The tremendous PAC raised $130 million to assist DeSantis’ run for the GOP 2024 presidential nomination, the Washington Put up reported on Monday. Most of that — $82.5 million — got here from DeSantis’s former gubernatorial marketing campaign PAC, the Put up mentioned.
In keeping with a New York Occasions/Siena ballot launched Monday, former President Donald Trump leads DeSantis 54% to 17% in a nationwide ballot of Republican voters.
It isn’t the primary time that DeSantis has appeared to have a 9/11 drawback. Throughout an interview with Piers Morgan a number of months in the past, DeSantis mentioned he couldn’t keep in mind the place he was on that fateful day.
He was educating historical past and training on the personal Darlington College in Georgia. After a photograph alleged to be of a younger DeSantis with younger coeds began circulating, Trump accused him of socializing with teenage ladies on the college, an allegation DeSantis has by no means addressed.
After the terrorist assault, DeSantis continued to show at Darlington earlier than enrolling in Harvard Legislation College in 2002, from which he graduated in 2005.
DeSantis joined the Navy in 2004 throughout his second 12 months in regulation college and was assigned to the Choose Advocate Basic’s Corps. After his commencement from regulation college, he reported to the Navy Command Southeast at Mayport.
From there, DeSantis was assigned within the spring of 2006 to the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, the place terrorist suspects had been detained since 9/11. He was a authorized adviser and allegedly oversaw the force-feeding of detainees throughout his time there. The advert doesn’t point out his time there.
He was then assigned to Seal Staff One as a authorized adviser in 2007 and didn’t report back to Iraq till that fall as a part of the Iraq Struggle troop surge. He obtained a Bronze Star, which is awarded for meritorious service in a fight theater.
In his latest ebook, “The Braveness to Be Free,” DeSantis mentioned he needed to get entangled within the nation’s response to the terrorist assaults and talked to recruiters concerning the alternatives to serve out there to him as a latest regulation college graduate.
“One recruiter informed me that the belief was that the Iraq marketing campaign could be over comparatively shortly and that there could be a necessity for army JAGs to steer prosecutions in army commissions of incarcerated terrorists on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base,” DeSantis wrote. That turned out to not be what occurred, but it surely appeared believable on the time and likewise appeared like an excellent alternative to make an influence.”
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