In recent months, Florida governor and recently declared GOP presidential contender Ron DeSantis has largely stayed above the fray as candidate Donald Trump and others criticized his leadership. That approach is changing.
A more aggressive Ron DeSantis is emerging as he steps onto the national political stage. Last week he vowed to “fight back” against Trump’s political attacks, and on Thursday, DeSantis called out an Associated Press reporter for charging he was avoiding voters and their questions.
The interaction with the AP reporter occurred during a campaign stop in New Hampshire designed to facilitate engagement with voters.
During the event, the governor was flanked by his wife Casey, and he spoke of the need to push back on “woke” and send “Joe Biden to his basement.”
After his remarks, DeSantis mingled with people, signed autographs, answered questions and posed for selfies. With DeSantis surrounded by and talking with voters, AP reporter Steve Peoples asked, “‘Why are you not taking any questions from voters, Governor?'”
An astonished DeSantis turned to Peoples and pointedly asked: ‘What are you talking about? Are you blind?”
DeSantis pressed Peoples, saying, “‘People are coming up to me, talking to me. 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.”
“I’m not blind,” Peoples responded.
NBC News posted video of the interaction on Twitter. Their unfavorable view of the exchange was noted in the caption of their post: “Gov. Ron DeSantis lashed out at reporter.”
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Former GOP Senate candidate Vikram Mansharamani also criticized the governor, saying, “That’s disappointing … I did not want a monologue; I wanted to see how he interacted with the audience.”
DeSantis’ press secretary Bryan Griffin criticized the media after the tense exchange. Griffin noted:
“Perfectly illustrative of the modern media shutting their eyes and ears to the truth to push their narrative.”
The enthusiastic crowd welcomed DeSantis warmly and applauded when he spoke of banning gender transition surgery for minors.
Casey DeSantis wore what the Daily Mail referred to as “a thinly-veiled nod to her husband’s policies in the Sunshine State … a fitted blue sweatshirt with an Alligator logo warning: ‘Don’t Tread on Florida.'”
Casey told the crowd: “Too often, and you’ll probably see it, you have people who run for elected office, they say they’re going to do all these wonderful things.”
“When they go up to … places like Washington, D.C.,” Casey added, “they go rogue, and they become listless vessels bending in the wind, beholden to polls and politics, not delivering accomplishments on behalf of the people that they were elected to represent. And it’s very frustrating.”
Noting how her husband is different, Casey vowed, “He never backs down. He never changes. He doesn’t cower, never takes the path of least resistance, who always stands up for what’s right. And he always puts the interests of the people ahead of his own.”
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