Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a presidential candidate, repeatedly asked a reporter if he was “blind” when the reporter asked him why he wasn’t taking questions from voters.
Reporter
Steve Peoples of The Associated Press approached DeSantis on June 1 at the governor’s first New Hampshire campaign event, inquiring about why the recently announced presidential candidate wasn’t taking questions from voters.
Video footage uploaded to Twitter
shows DeSantis finished taking a photo with an attendee and responded sharply to Peoples, asking the reporter, “Are you blind?”
“People are coming up to me, talking to me,” said DeSantis, surrounded by members of the crowd.
“What are you talking about? ... Are you blind? Are you blind? People are coming up to me, talking to me [about] whatever they want to talk to me about.”
According to NBC, DeSantis did not take questions from his lectern allowing the entire audience to hear his answers to questions.
Bryan Griffin, press secretary for DeSantis,
addressed the kerfuffle that was caused by DeSantis’ sharp response by saying, “This @AP reporter asked this question while @RonDeSantis was surrounded by voters in New Hampshire asking him questions and taking pictures. Perfectly illustrative of the modern media shutting their eyes and ears to the truth to push their narrative.”
DeSantis officially announced his White House run on May 24,
raising $1 million for his campaign in the first hour of his candidacy.
“There was so much enthusiasm for Governor DeSantis’ vision for our Great American Comeback that he literally busted up the internet,” Griffin said in a Twitter
post. “Washington is next. $1 million raised online in one hour … and counting!”
DeSantis filed the notification of his campaign with the Federal Election Commission just hours before making his announcement on Twitter Spaces.
Just two days before his announcement,
news broke that the college student who is known for tracking Twitter owner Elon Musk’s private jet on Twitter started tracking DeSantis’ plane, seeming to indicate that the Republican presidential candidate is garnering increasing attention as a 2024 front-runner.
Other declared Republican presidential candidates include former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, conservative talk show host Larry Elder, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who announced his bid on May 22.
Former President Donald Trump, who is also at the top of the Republican polls for 20204,
responded to the recent addition of Republican candidates, saying on Truth Social, “Tim Scott’s Presidential launch, even with the broken microphone (don’t pay the contractor, Tim!), was by far the best Presidential launch of the week. Robs was a catastrophe!”
“Rob” is one of several nicknames Trump has assigned DeSantis in recent months.
