GOP battle turns ugly when meme-maker throws ‘gangbang’ hit at ex-Trump staffer, who now backs DeSantis

The Trump-DeSantis battle took an ugly turn Saturday when a meme maker aimed a sexual assault “euphemism” at a female Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) supporter.

Rather than wait for the actual primaries, the debate stage or even for some likely candidates to announce a campaign, surrogates across the political landscape have been engaging in disputes ranging from mere stalwart defense to merciless attacks.

This has been especially true regarding the back-and-forth from Trump and DeSantis factions, and played out when Evan Kilgore labeled former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis as “unhinged” while he defended the suggestion a DeSantis supporter was “not going too far with the gangbang that is coming” in response to her previous stance.

The remark came after one user pointed out that communications director Erin Perrine, who works for a group aiming to draft DeSantis to run, had made past remarks in support of Trump. Ellis had called out that “Sexual harassment, threats of violence, and comparisons to sex workers are never okay legally or ethically,” in a statement to Newsweek Saturday and asked, “My question is whether the Trump family wants these vile people associated with them or condones sexual harassment?”

“Women who previously represented Trump and are now pro-DeSantis, like Erin Perrine, should be able to do their jobs and have their political opinions without malicious threats of violence online,” she added.

In reaction, Kilgore said, “Jenna Ellis is unhinged and now just playing victim for the well-deserved backlash she’s getting on her anti-Trump garbage. I genuinely used to really respect her, but if she can’t take the heat, she should stay out of political commentary. Thought she was better than this.”

It was then that another user pointed out the “gangbang” post and asked, “Are you ok with the comment about former Trump staffer Erin Perrine? Just curious. It’s the same crew comparing Jenna to a pornstar and photoshopping Christina Pushaw’s knees insinuating oral sex.”

As Kilgore continued to get called out for seeming to hold the position Ellis described as “either 100% in all the time,” for Trump, “or you deserve to be harassed,” he went on to hold to his opinion, disregarding need for reflection and argued, “I don’t need to because I understand it for the euphemism it is and am not lying to my audience to defame others and tell them they’re sexually harassing and threatening violence on me, when they’re not.”

Even when people had extended another opportunity for him to bow out on this argument with one user suggesting, “explain this to me like I’m now to speaking English. What does this mean?” with the offending tweet highlighted, Kilgore held his ground.

“*pretends not to know figures of speech*” he leveled in his reply that featured a screengrab of the definition of “gangbang” and wrote, “You see, it could easily be understood as a term of ‘ganging up on somebody.’ To argue a threat of reasonably-believed violence against an idividual [sic] here would be embarrassing and incredibly weak. It is tasteless wording, at finest.”

More back-and-forth continued between Kilgore and Ellis as she noted it was “at BEST tasteless and crass speech” over a political opinion and he then played innocent that he was “not defending the phrase” while calling out First Amendment rights.

When political commentator Giancarlo Sopo chimed in “Is he really parsing the ‘gangbang’ threat?” Ellis took her own shot at the select group of Trump supporters and wrote, “Them: ‘You’re cute and we’re gonna gangbang you.’ Boys afraid of Trump: ‘I can’t say anything good about DeSantis people so uhhhhh freedom of speech!'”

https://twitter.com/JennaEllisEsq/status/1647355142230900738

Kilgore remained unmoved and insisted, “I made a plethora of tweets condemning its use, defending [Ellis], and condemning the personal attacks on you, Jenna. You’re delusional and disgusting at this point.”

He followed that with another personal attack on Ellis and wrote, “Thanks for all the support tonight and I appreciate all the new followers. I stand by everything I’ve tweeted today. Jenna Ellis is an extremely nasty individual and is using every Liberal tactic to shutdown anyone who criticizes her. Pathetic.”

https://twitter.com/EvanAKilgore/status/1647426532720123905

 

Kevin Haggerty

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