This takes “below the belt” to a whole new low.
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign questioned Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ manhood Friday as the 2024 Republican contender was set to attend a Nevada event known for serving stewed and fried lamb testicles.
“Not surprised Ron DeSantis is looking for a set of balls,” Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, told NBC News when asked for a reaction to DeSantis attending Saturday’s Basque Fry in Gardnerville, which draws thousands of Republicans and conservatives from around the Silver State.
“The Trump team’s obsession with men’s genitalia is more perverted than a woke grooming book,” shot back Erin Perrine, a spokeswoman for the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down.
The Basque Fry has its roots in an annual cookout held by Paul Laxalt, a former Republican governor and senator from Nevada who was a close friend of Ronald Reagan. Paul’s grandson Adam, the former Nevada state attorney general, revived the tradition in 2016 (the Laxalt family is of Basque ancestry) and has served up the unique delicacy to big GOP names including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Vice President Mike Pence.
“I was a two-time Trump chair. I don’t see a path for him to win Nevada in a general election,” said Adam Laxalt, whose super PAC, Morning in Nevada, is co-hosting the fry with Never Back Down.
“Those voters are not coming back,” he added, pointing to Trump’s two narrow Nevada losses in 2016 and 2020.
LaCivita responded by taking aim at Laxalt’s most sensitive area.
“So Adam Laxalt, who lost the governor’s race in ’18 and lost the Senate race in ’22, is lecturing President Trump?” he told NBC. “That’s the pot calling the kettle black.”
Trump, who has led the Republican primary field by double digits since entering the race, was arraigned Tuesday on a 37-count federal indictment after he allegedly lied about unlawfully retaining classified national security documents.
The 77-year-old ex-president has implied DeSantis doesn’t have the stones to win the crowded GOP primary in recent months, calling him names and criticizing his leadership in Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 44-year-old governor has returned fire by calling Trump “juvenile” and saying he had “moved to the left” on issues like border security and criminal justice since 2016.
The governor’s campaign on Friday highlighted a Fox News report that showed the First Step Act, which Trump signed into law in 2018, had recently released a financier for the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.
Mohamad Youssef Hammoud was convicted in 2002 and slated to serve a 30-year prison sentence, but was released after 23 years. He recently told a Lebanese outlet he “would be proud to send money to Hezbollah” again.
DeSantis, who has called the law a “jailbreak bill,” promised to repeal it if he is elected.
The Trump campaign accused DeSantis of voting for the bill during his time in the US House of Representatives, but he actually supported an earlier version of the bill before resigning his seat to run for the Florida governorship in 2018.
Laxalt, who lost to Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) last fall by fewer than 8,000 votes, said Republicans needed to step up their if they want a chance at winning again.
“They’re here for the 2024 election,” he also said. “I know Gov. DeSantis said this on the record, and I share the same sentiment: We’re going to have to compete in ballot harvesting and these methods — and everything could count.”
Nevada is moving away from years of running a caucus contest toward an official state primary, but some Republicans have challenged the decision.
The old caucus system would likely give a leg up to Trump, as Nevada Republican Party chairman Michael McDonald has remained a close ally of the former president.