The immolation of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential effort—which began in comically bad fashion—proceeded quickly to desperation, self-sabotage, and buffoonery.

It cost DeSantis donors more than $100 million for their man to lose half of his support from Republican voters nationally since that inauspicious beginning. A campaign that started on the premise of clearing the field of the other non-Trump candidates and running a multistate operation is now trying to hold on to a distant second place in Iowa and is well out of the running in New Hampshire.

We’ve now reached the “run for your lives” part of this particular debacle, with the departure of the chairman of the DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down, former Nevada Gov. Adam Laxalt. 

People don’t lightly leave jobs like that six weeks before the make-or-break Iowa caucuses. Nor do they disembark amid other campaign turmoil without knowing that it will set the vultures circling. And to do it to your longtime friend and former roommate?