Former U.S. Navy pilot Ken Harbaugh is accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis of “stolen valor” after the Florida Republican unveiled a new “Top Gun”-themed campaign ad in which he calls himself “Top Gov.”
“It’s not just cringing,” Harbaugh said in a video response posted on Twitter. “It’s literally Navy pilot cosplay.”
In the widely mocked ad, DeSantis wears aviator shades and a bomber jacket and plopped into what appeared to be the pilot’s seat of a fighter jet as he talked about taking on the “corporate media.”
“Now, unlike Ron DeSantis, I didn’t pick this jacket up at Party City,” Harbaugh said. “These are actual pilot wings.”
Harbaugh noted that while DeSantis did serve in the Navy, it was as an attorney.
“Nothing wrong with that,” Harbaugh said. “Until you start strutting around the flight line wearing aviator shades and pretending to be a badass.”
“This tough guy act is pathetic, especially from someone like Ron DeSantis. This campaign ad from Ron DeSantis is just one more example of a Republican politician appropriating the honor of others because he has none,” he added.
Harbaugh concluded by giving DeSantis a new nickname: Wedge or “the simplest tool known to man.”
See his full response below posted by progressive PAC MeidasTouch.
An actual former Navy Pilot @Team_Harbaugh just slammed Ron DeSantis over his “pathetic” Top Gun themed ad in a brutal and necessary takedown you have to watch. pic.twitter.com/TNItsqAxhq
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) August 23, 2022