Viral Ron DeSantis Video Might Be the Final Nail in the Coffin

Florida governor and 2024 hopeful Ron DeSantis has been widely mocked online after a clip of him answering questions about the upcoming GOP primary debate went viral. Some critics even suggested it might be the final straw for his campaign, with one saying: "It's over."

The Republican was asked on Saturday for his reaction to his campaign communication director Andrew Romero's recent suggestion that the other 2024 hopefuls will have the "knives out" for the governor during the Wednesday debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

DeSantis, who is trailing Donald Trump in the 2024 GOP primary polls by a huge margin, was also asked for comment on a leaked memo from the pro-DeSantis political action committee Never Back Down which suggested how the Florida governor should act in the debate.

The memo suggested that DeSantis should "take a sledgehammer" to rival Vivek Ramaswamy—who has overtaken DeSantis for second place in some recent GOP primary polls—as well as "defend Donald Trump" when fellow 2024 hopeful and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie confronts the former president during the August 23 televised debate as expected.

While answering questions from Fox News, DeSantis could be seen appearing to nervously smile, clench his jaw, and grind his teeth, which has since been leaped upon by social media users.

"The chances of him having a career-ending public outburst are rising sharply," posted @InternetHippo on X, formally Twitter, while sharing a close up of DeSantis' nervous reaction.

"OMG!!! He's broken. Crushed. It's over. Wow. I almost feel sorry for him. Not quite, but almost," posted Ron Filipkowski, a former federal prosecutor and co-host of the YouTube show MAGA Uncovered, Track & Report on the Right-Wing.

Some users compared the footage to that of Homelander, a character in the Amazon TV series The Boys, a supervillain whose own expressions have become the basis of numerous memes.

DeSantis' office has been contacted for comment.

In a discussion on Fox News' MediaBuzz on Sunday, liberal political commentator Marie Harf said that one of DeSantis' principal problems was that he was "a little weird."

"I don't think Ron DeSantis has a strategy. I don't think he has any clue what he's doing here politically," she said.

Fellow panelist Rich Lowry, a conservative commentator, agreed. "It's a snake-bit campaign. It's hard to think of one good news cycle the DeSantis campaign has had in the last six months," he said.

DeSantis' 2024 campaign struggles continue to mount, with the Florida governor seemingly unable to make any sort of inroads into Trump's poll lead, despite the former president's legal issues.

While those legal issues could yet derail Trump's bid, DeSantis' campaign has previously been mocked by his apparent awkwardness and lack of charisma and charm on the campaign trail, as well as a series of avoidable errors.

In July, one of DeSantis' campaign team, Nate Hochman, was "let go" after he allegedly produced a video that ended with the Florida governor's face superimposed over a sonnenrad, an ancient circular symbol that was co-opted by the Nazis and is still used today by some white supremacist groups.

Hochman was accused of posting the video under another account on X and then resharing the video from his own profile so it looked like it had been produced independently.

The controversy over the clip emerged after DeSantis' 2024 campaign team also promoted a video on social media which attacked LGBTQ+ rights and praised DeSantis' legislations such as the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill that critics accused of being homophobic.

In response to Fox News' questioning about the leak of the debate memo, DeSantis said: "On the memo, it's not mine. I haven't read it. It's just something that we have and put off to the side.

"In terms of the debate I know from the military when you're over the target, that's when you're taking flak," DeSantis added.

"If you look really in the last six to nine months, I've been more attacked than anybody else: [President Joe] Biden, [Kamala] Harris, the media, the left, other Republican candidates, and there's a reason for that because people know that I'm the biggest threat."

Update, 08/21/23, 10:45 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and reaction.