DeSantis throws crucial campaign allies under the bus as operation implodes: report

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made a risky bet on his Republican presidential campaign, and now he's throwing his allies under the bus and it blows up in his face, according to a report.

The GOP governor's campaign turned over substantial funds and many established responsibilities to the outside group Never Back Down, but that political action committee appears to be on the brink of imploding with the resignation of its chief architect Jeff Roe, reported Real Clear Politics.

“I don’t have control over it, and that’s the problem with how this is set up," DeSantis said. "If I controlled it, I would own it, and I would obviously have run it in a good way."

Never Back Down last week canceled all of its advertising in Iowa and New Hampshire for next year, and will instead focus on field operations, and DeSantis appeared to be trying to distance himself from it.

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"It’s just an independent group," he said, "and so the dynamics there are things that I just have no visibility into whatsoever.”

Fight Right, a new group linked to DeSantis donors, will take over advertising responsibilities, but DeSantis insisted his chances of becoming his party's nomination remained strong as he campaigned in Iowa ahead of the Jan. 15 caucus.

“We are clicking,” DeSantis said. “We are doing good.”