Iowa GOP leader sends Ron DeSantis 'cease and desist' letter for busing in supporters

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has received a "cease and desist" letter from an Iowa Republican leader after he was accused of busing in supporters to an Iowa event.

The Messenger reported DeSantis received the "extraordinary" letter from Muscatine County's GOP demanding that the "Never Back Down PAC cease and desist all attempts to contact and collaborate with the Muscatine County Republican Party of Iowa."

The letter accused the DeSantis PAC of "unlawful and unethical collaboration … with Republican County Parties in the State of Iowa."

The controversy was created by the unique way a super PAC is being used to canvass voters instead of the regular practice of using campaign resources.

"He is the first presidential candidate that is going out and buying and paying for representation … he's not building a grassroots organization," Muscatine GOP Chair Daniel Freeman explained. "And it could very well be that he uses Never Back Down because he can't garner state support from individual residents in Iowa. Therein lies the problem. He is misleading the public of Iowa by sending busloads of people to a parade and they don't even live in the area and in fact, most of them don't even live in the state of Iowa."

Never Back Down spokesperson Erin Perrine blamed former President Donald Trump.

"They're running a flailing Iowa campaign," she insisted. "Trump can't fill an event. They can't match us in endorsements. They haven't even tried. They can't and won't organize. They're not capturing people at events the way we are. They're not as sophisticated and, frankly, they're not as well-staffed as we are. They've failed at every operational level."

Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita responded by calling Perrine's argument "nuts."