DeSantis Lashes Out At Reporter During New Hampshire Campaign Stop: ‘Are You Blind?’ - Forbes

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Topline

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis lambasted a reporter during a campaign stop in New Hampshire Thursday, twice asking him, “Are you blind?” after the reporter questioned why the presidential hopeful wasn’t taking questions from voters.

Key Facts

The heated comments came after Associated Press reporter Steve Peoples asked DeSantis, “Why not take any questions from voters, governor?”—DeSantis immediately shot down the question, replying, “People are coming up to me, talking to me,” and asked, “What are you talking about? Are you blind? Are you blind?”

DeSantis was leaving a campaign event in Laconia, New Hampshire, at the time of the exchange, and was shaking hands with members of the crowd before departing, and while the Florida governor was able to answer individual questions, he did not take questions from the lectern, which would have allowed all voters to hear his answers at once, NBC News reported.

Peoples, who has been traveling with the presidential hopeful throughout the week from Iowa to New Hampshire, noted on his social media that DeSantis did not take voters’ questions from the lectern during his campaign stops in Iowa earlier in the week.

Before the heated exchange, Peoples pondered on Twitter whether DeSantis would take publicly posed questions from New Hampshire voters during Thursday’s campaign stops, as the state is one “where voters have been asking presidential candidates tough questions for decades,” Peoples said.

Crucial Quote

“There weren’t questions or any interactivity with the audience,” Vikram Mansharamani, a former candidate for the GOP Senate nomination in New Hampshire, told NBC News. “We like to hear from candidates and we have questions of our own [as]

citizens here in the state.”

Key Background

This is not the first time DeSantis has gotten into a heated exchange with a member of the press. In March, DeSantis lost his temper with a reporter from The Times of London after he asked how the Florida governor’s policy on the war in Ukraine would differ from President Joe Biden’s. Last year, after a reporter dared ask DeSantis about a piece of legislation, DeSantis snapped, “You’re in the news business—does the truth matter or not?” and began asking the reporter questions during the press conference. Early in the pandemic, a CNN reporter pressed DeSantis on the coronavirus vaccine rollout, and DeSantis interrupted the reporter mid-question to ask, “Are you going to give a speech or are you going to ask a question?”

News Peg

DeSantis hit the campaign trial this week for the first time since he announced his candidacy last week. The Florida governor is a front-runner alongside former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, though a slew of other candidates have already announced and more—like former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie—are coming next week. Fasten your safety belts—it’s going to be a grumpy 18 months.