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   Apr 16, 2023   
      
   DeSantis Hits Back With Ads Attacking ‘Gun Grabber’ Trump   
      
   Mike Dorning, Bloomberg News   
      
   ,   
      
   (Bloomberg) -- A political group aligned with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis   
   launched video attack ads against Donald Trump, striking back at the former   
   president for scathing criticism of DeSantis and ratcheting up hostilities   
   between the rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.   
      
   Never Back Down, a pro-DeSantis group, blasted Trump as a “gun grabber”   
   saying he “cut and run like a coward” in statements Trump made in 2019   
   after a series of mass shootings in which he backed “red flag laws,” which   
   allow authorities to take guns from people judged to be a threat to harm   
   themselves or others.   
      
   Another ad that the group launched Sunday accused Trump of “stealing pages   
   from the Biden-Pelosi Playbook” in his repeated criticism of DeSantis for   
   working on behalf of “massive cuts” to Social Security and Medicare. As a   
   congressman, DeSantis voted for nonbinding legislation to raise the   
   qualifying age for both programs to 70.   
      
   The ad barrage suggests a more aggressive response from the DeSantis team   
   to Trump’s withering criticism of their candidate. While Trump is a   
   declared candidate to recapture the White House in 2024, DeSantis hasn’t   
   announced a presidential bid.   
      
   Make America Great Again, a Trump-aligned group, has been amplifying the   
   former president’s criticism of DeSantis’s prior votes on Social Security   
   in advertisements for more than two weeks. The latest, referencing an   
   anecdote reported in the Daily Beast in which DeSantis scooped chocolate   
   pudding with three fingers, says the Florida governor “has his dirty   
   fingers all over senior entitlements.”   
      
   Republican support for a DeSantis presidential run has been declining in   
   polls as Trump repeatedly denigrates the Florida governor and House   
   Republicans publicly rally around the former president in the face of a   
   criminal indictment by a Manhattan grand jury.   
      
   Trump’s lead over DeSantis in the RealClearPolitics average of polls has   
   widened to more than 28 percentage points from as close as 13 points in   
   January.   
      
   The DeSantis-aligned group’s online ad criticizing Trump’s stances on   
   firearms was released as Republican presidential hopefuls courted gun   
   enthusiasts at a National Rifle Association convention in Indianapolis.   
      
   The group unveiled the ad responding to Trump’s attacks on DeSantis’s   
   Social Security record on “Fox News Sunday.”   
      
   Never Back Down, which also released a gauzy ad celebrating DeSantis’s   
   political values, has reserved $3.5 million worth of television air time,   
   split between national cable channels and local buys in early presidential   
   nominating states including Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina,   
   according to AdImpact.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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