Pro-DeSantis group says CNN town hall shows Trump is ‘stuck in the past’

A super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for president assailed former President Trump on Wednesday for his performance during a CNN town hall event, arguing it validated the need to find a different Republican nominee in 2024.

“On the same day Ron DeSantis was assailing Joe Biden’s border crisis, Donald Trump was on CNN attacking DeSantis and lying about finishing the border wall,” Erin Perrine, a spokesperson for the pro-DeSantis group Never Back Down, said in a statement. “The CNN townhall was, as expected, over an hour of nonsense that proved Trump is stuck in the past. 

“After 76 years, Trump still doesn’t know where he stands on important conservative issues like supporting life and the 2nd amendment,” Perrine said. “How does that Make America Great Again?” 

Trump appeared on CNN on Wednesday night for a town hall with New Hampshire Republican voters. It marked the first time Trump appeared on the network since 2016, and Never Back Down earlier in the evening chastised the former president for going on CNN after he spent years deriding it as “fake news.”

One audience member asked Trump about government mandates on businesses, a question that took a jab at DeSantis over his ongoing battle with Disney in Florida. Trump used the opportunity to swipe at the Florida governor, who is running in a distant second place in the vast majority of GOP primary polls.

“I think he ought to just relax and take it easy and think about the future, because right now his future is not looking so good,” Trump said.

DeSantis has not officially announced that he is running for president in 2024, but he is expected to do so in the coming weeks.