Florida Governor Ron DeSantis lost his cool and snapped at US reporter Steve Peoples on Thursday, when he was asked why he did not take questions from voters after his speech in New Hampshire.
“People are coming up to me, talking to me,” DeSantis snapped at Peoples. “What are you talking about? Are you blind? Are you blind? People are coming up to me, talking to me whatever they want to talk to me about.”
The incident was caught on video as DeSantis appeared to be making his way out of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post in Laconia, where he was seen shaking hands and taking photos with people in the crowd.
DeSantis reportedly declined to take audience questions following a stock stump speech he gave to more than 100 audience members at the Laconia post.
US media has pointed out that it is typical for presidential candidates to take questions from voters in New Hampshire; however, it was also noted that DeSantis did not take questions from Iowa voters earlier this week either.
“This is New Hampshire. The reality here is the vast majority of political people here in New Hampshire, we do our due diligence. We want to know where these people stand. And a lot of that is hearing from them and then asking them questions,” said Alan Glassman, New Hampshire’s GOP Treasurer.
“I’m just hoping that next time the governor does show up here, he’ll actually be doing some more interaction with the people,” Glassman said.
In an effort to drive a knife into his 2024 opponent’s campaign fumble, former US President Donald Trump made a point of taking questions from voters after his campaign events in Iowa. The former commander-in-chief emphasized to a crowd of about 200 members of a conservative group gathered at a breakfast event in the Des Moines area that they could indeed ask him questions.
“A lot of politicians don’t take questions. They give a speech,” Trump said during his time in Iowa on Thursday.
But DeSantis took a jab at his opponent on Thursday, when a reporter asked DeSantis to comment on Trump's statement that he could "fix" the US in about six months, while the Florida official would need two full terms to do the same. “Why didn’t he do it in his first four years?” DeSantis quipped.