DeSantis Group BUSTED Paying Supporters To Make Him Look Popular

Florida governor Ron DeSantis was blasted by Republicans in Iowa after it was revealed that a Super PAC aligned with his campaign had been paying supporters to show up at events. Specifically, the PAC paid people to show up at a recent parade to show support for the presidential candidate. But that's not the only thing that the PAC is accused of, and some of their alleged activities might actually be illegal, as Farron Cousins explains.

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*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

Ron DeSantis is so unpopular, even though he swears he is totally gonna be the next president, but the man is apparently so unpopular that the super PAC supporting his presidential campaign never backed down, is what it's called, has reportedly had to pay people to show up at events just so it makes it look like he actually has grassroots support in the state of Iowa. In fact, the situation for Ron DeSantis has gotten so bad in Iowa that a chair of a local Republican party had to send a scathing letter actually accusing this super Pac never back down of violating state law by illegally coordinating with local Republican parties in the state, you know, to get people to show up for Ron DeSantis. So here's what's happening, uh, couple weeks ago there was a, uh, a Blackhawk County, my Waterloo Day parade, and, uh, they wanted a presence for Ron DeSantis supporters there.

So this letter alleges, and this the letter from Muscatine County Republican chair, Daniel Freeman, the letter alleges, that never backed down, actually had to coordinate with the local Republican party in, uh, Blackhawk County to pay people to show up in the parade, you know, with their DeSantis gear looking like, oh, hey, we're actual DeSantis supporters. Look at us. We're so great. This guy's wonderful. Um, but apparently they weren't legit. They were, in fact, according to this letter, paid to show up to pretend to support Ron DeSantis. Additionally, the letter says that, uh, this never backed down pack is actually paying canvassers to go door to door, $22 an hour, uh, to get people to support DeSantis, where typically it's volunteers, you know, canvassers like that, that do the work. Now, I don't think that's actually illegal, but if never backed down is in fact coordinating with local Republican parties and giving them money to send people out there, that is illegal.

You know, most likely campaign finance laws are very vague and they're rarely enforced. But Daniel Freeman from the Muscatine County Republican Party seems to think it's illegal. He also, in his letter, basically points out the fact that it's pathetic that Ron DeSantis even has to pay people to show up for him because he is so unpopular. Let me read this from the letter. He is the first presidential candidate that is going out and buying and paying for representation. He's not building a grassroots organization, and it could very well be that he uses never back down because he can't garner state support from individual residents in Iowa. Therein lies the problem. He is misleading

The public of Iowa by sending busloads of people to a parade and they don't even live in the area. And in fact, most of them don't even live in the state of Iowa. So it's not just that he had to pay people to show up, but he's so unpopular in Iowa, according to this letter, he had to pay people from other states like, Hey, not only do you wanna pretend to be from Iowa, but can you also additionally pretend that you like me. Now, this is not technically DeSantis doing it, it is the never back down political action committee, which of course is aligned with DeSantis. Um, it evolved from his state political action committee turned into never back down his, you know, presidential political action committee. So, um, you can't say DeSantis knows what's going on, but at this point, does it even matter?

The guy is so unpopular, he's having to pay people to show up in the early caucus state in order to pretend to like him so that he doesn't get his butt handed to him in Iowa. That's what's happening here because a poor pathetic showing in Iowa for most campaigns can in fact be the end of it. Now, a strong second or third place finish, right? I mean, that can help you, but if DeSantis can't muster that, then his campaign is over. So you start to get the real picture of why never back down as having to pay people to show up to support him and pay people because they can't find volunteers willing to do it for free.