A staffer for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is no longer with the 2024 presidential campaign just days after he retweeted a video featuring White supremacist imagery.
Over the weekend, Nate Hochman, who served as a speechwriter for the DeSantis campaign, according to a source familiar with his role, retweeted a video that features DeSantis’ face over the Florida state seal that spins into a Sonnenrad, with the words “Make America Florida,” as soldiers march in the background. The Sonnenrad symbol is an alternative to the swastika and is used to show support for White supremacy and neo-Nazism.
“Nate Hochman is no longer with the campaign. And we will not be commenting on him further,” a campaign official told CNN. The campaign declined to comment on whether the video played a role in Hochman’s employment status.
Hochman told CNN that he was unaware of the connotation behind the symbol in the video when he retweeted it and took it down immediately after being informed of the meaning by a friend. He told Semafor that “it was an honor to work for Governor DeSantis.”
Hochman previously worked for The National Review before joining the DeSantis campaign. He often shared right-wing memes and pro-DeSantis content on Twitter.
Hochman’s departure comes as the DeSantis campaign has made additional cuts to its payroll, reducing its staff by more than one third as the Florida governor seeks to reboot his struggling bid for the 2024 Republican nomination.
The video, originally posted to the “Ron DeSantis Fancams” @desantiscams Twitter account, highlights news headlines of Trump for failing to build the border wall and promoting Covid-19 vaccines, as well as a clip of the former president holding a “LGBTs for Trump” rainbow flag, over a remixed version of “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush. Then, it cuts to clips of DeSantis, including from his “Top Gov” ad and highlights news headlines like, “Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Strongest Anti-Illegal Immigration Legislation in the Country to Combat Biden’s Border Crisis” and “Florida City Cancels LGBTQ+ Pride Parade as Ron DeSantis Prepares to Sign Anti-Drag Bill.”
CNN obtained a screenshot showing Hochman retweeted the video.
DeSantis’ campaign and its supporters have frequently used online videos to promote the candidate. DeSantis’ campaign took heat from Republicans and Democrats for sharing a video created by the account “Proud Elephant,” which slammed Trump for his past support for LGBTQ rights.
“I think identifying Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream, where he was having men compete against women in his beauty pageants, I think that’s totally fair game,” DeSantis said in an interview with Tomi Lahren in early July.
This story has been updated with additional reaction.
