Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was “apoplectic” last month when a pre-debate strategy memo was posted on the website of a firm owned by the chief strategist of a super PAC supporting his campaign, according to a report. The memo—in which DeSantis was advised to defend Donald Trump and “take a sledgehammer” to Vivek Ramaswamy—came from the Never Back Down PAC and ended up on the site of Jeff Roe’s company, Axiom, ahead of the first GOP primary debate. A DeSantis donor told The Washington Post that as well as being furious about the leak, DeSantis has expressed regrets about hiring Roe as Never Back Down’s lead strategist. The Post claims two other people familiar with DeSantis’ comments also confirmed they’d heard him privately complaining about Roe. DeSantis’ communications director Andrew Romeo dismissed the claims as “totally false,” saying he is “thrilled” with Never Back Down’s work.
