As part of its latest downsizing effort, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign fired a staffer who this weekend promoted an online video that superimposed Nazi imagery over the candidate’s face.
The campaign staffer, Nate Hochman, had retweeted the video over the weekend before deleting the post, a screenshot shared with NBC News showed. A communications staffer, Hochman is considered by some to be an up-and-coming thinker on the right who has written for The New York Times, National Review and other outlets.
“Nate Hochman is no longer with the campaign,” a campaign official told NBC News. “And we will not be commenting on him further.”
The official did not say whether the retweet factored in the decision.
Hochman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
July 25, 202304:37
Hochman shared a video from the Twitter account @desantiscams that criticized former President Donald Trump and concluded with an image of DeSantis standing in front of a sonnenrad — a symbol co-opted by the Nazis and promoted in modern times by fascist sympathizers — as soldiers marched by.
Republican strategist Luke Thompson, a regular critic of the DeSantis campaign on Twitter, first noted the video. The account has shared similarly styled pro-DeSantis videos since launching in March.
Last year, The Dispatch reported Hochman participated in a Twitter Space with white nationalist Nick Fuentes, saying Fuentes is “probably a better influence than Ben Shapiro on young men who might otherwise be conservative.” (Hochman later said that he had said some “really stupid things” he did not “actually believe.”)
Hochman’s dismissal comes as the DeSantis campaign has fired more than 40% of its original staff within months of launching, following concerns over its spending and large staff footprint. In total, 38 staffers have been cut since the campaign’s late May launch, including at least 26 on Tuesday afternoon. The latest round of cuts was first reported by Politico.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
