News/Commentary

Cavuto rips Trump campaign’s ‘childish’ DeSantis attack ad, says it’s ‘insulting’ to voters

April 15, 2023 | | Print Article

Fox News host Neil Cavuto is not pleased with former President Donald Trump’s latest attack ad.

Released this week, the ad mocks Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a fat pig who allegedly eats pudding with his fingers and allegedly wants to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Speaking on Fox News’s “Your World” this Friday, Cavuto called the ad “childish” but admitted that the attack on DeSantis is nothing new. Meanwhile, his guest pointed out that the “childish” attack ads seem to be working.

Listen:

“This is not the first time the former president has raised weight as an issue when talking about someone. If you think about it, just the other day he was talking again and again about how looks matter in referring to his former attorney general, ‘slovenly and pathetic Bill Barr, our coward former AG,'” Cavuto began.

“I could go on and on and on, but it starts with slovenly and pathetic, and it is a theme that keeps running in his criticism. And I can go to last September, when Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, dared criticized him on something. And he in fact, that is the former president on his Truth Social site, referred to Chris Christie as ‘Roy Rogers at 11 PM in the evening trying to console himself.’ It does seem childish,” he added.

His guest, Fox News’ Daron Shaw, concurred.

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“It does [seem childish]. I was thinking when this ad aired, the former president’s a little like that junior high school bully who managed to find the one thing about everybody’s appearance that made them uncomfortable, that made them insecure — and would hone in on that to, you know, sort of elevate himself and to make them feel bad,” he said.

“Presidential politics these days is a lot like a junior high school cafeteria, I think. And in a social media age … childish taunts seem to work, right. It’s more likely to get retweeted. It’s more likely to get people like you and me talking about it, as opposed to just a hit on DeSantis’ position on Medicare and Social Security,” he added.

Cavuto responded by acknowledging that such attack ads do indeed seem to work, both for Republicans AND Democrats.

“I was reminded by this left-wing group, Blue Action, that said of Ron DeSantis, that he is everywhere looking slovenly and awkward and angry. Then I went back in time to remember Chris Christie himself, who was the target of Democrat hate ads that focused on his weight when Jon Corzine was being challenged by Christie for the governorship,” he said.

He then played a clip of that specific “hate ad” before once again slamming such ads as childish.

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“I don’t care how people feel about these candidates or points of view. I get that we all have strong positions. I get some hate mail — quite a bit of it, actually — from people who will somehow think that I’m overweight. And I tell them the camera adds a hundred pounds — it’s a well-known fact,” he said.

“But my only point in saying this is it’s childish. It’s just stupid. It is insulting, not only to push ads and promotions like this, but to think the American people will buy it or should be exposed to it. I know I’m naïve. I just find it idiotic,” he added.

Cavuto’s remarks provoked some interesting reactions.

Trump supporters predictably slammed him (*Language warning):

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Whereas DeSantis supporters predictably praised him:

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Vivek Saxena
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