DeSantis Exposed

By Rich Lowry

Monday, June 05, 2023

 

Sioux City, Iowa — A Ron DeSantis campaign stop at a church picnic here was marred by yet another awkward interaction with a voter. 

 

The event on the grounds of the Emanuel Evangelical Church had an overflow crowd that greeted DeSantis warmly and repeatedly applauded during the brief remarks he delivered with a hand-held microphone. 

 

“This shows that the governor is willing to put in the work to let Iowa voters get to know him and learn more about his record and agenda,” said a spokesman for the campaign. 

 

Yet the event that the DeSantis team hoped to portray as a success generated viral video of the governor having an uncomfortable exchange with a potential supporter.

 

It occurred at the end of the buffet line near the potato salad. Mary Evans, 52, holding a plate of barbecue chicken and biscuits, introduced herself to the governor and said she had driven about 30 minutes from nearby Le Mars. DeSantis said, “Oh, hi!”

 

Questions immediately emerged about why DeSantis hadn’t instead said, “Hi — how are you?” or, “Wow — that’s great,” or “Huh — sounds French.”

 

Asked for comment, the DeSantis campaign did not respond.

 

A spokesman for the DNC said that the interaction showed, once again, that DeSantis is not electable, and Republicans should definitely nominate former president Donald Trump. 

 

 *****

 

Davenport, Iowa — An Iowa voter said he didn’t know why Ron DeSantis turned away from him so quickly after the two met following one of the Florida governor’s fireside chats here. 

 

Benjamin Hall, 37, a machinist, introduced himself to the governor and shook hands with him, before DeSantis immediately turned around to greet someone else in an event space thronged with 200 people.

 

Swarmed by reporters after the abortive greeting, Hall answered questions with a couple of boom mikes hovering above his head.

 

“How weird was that?” asked one journalist. 

 

“What?” replied Hall. 

 

“How disrespected do you feel right now?” asked another. 

 

“What are you talking about?” Hall answered. 

 

“The way he turned away from you like you didn’t even exist. Why do you think he’d do that?”

 

“I don’t know,” said the long-time Davenport resident who caucused for Ted Cruz and voted for Trump twice in general elections. “Seemed fine to me.”

 

Such equivocal reactions to DeSantis out on the campaign trail after his long slide in the polls are driving doubts about his long-term viability as a candidate. 

 

***** 

 

Urbandale, Iowa — Ron DeSantis lashed out at reporters at a crowded meet-and-greet at a Pizza Ranch restaurant here as his strange interactions with Iowans are a persistent and growing issue in his campaign for president. 

 

As the Florida governor spoke with June Kelly, 22, a recent college graduate who works at the restaurant, an AP reporter interrupted to ask why he’s not better at small talk. 

 

When DeSantis shook his head and continued to talk to Kelly, a Washington Post journalist followed up, asking whether he thought his habit of often only saying, “Oh, hi” to voters was undermining his support in Iowa. 

 

DeSantis replied, “You must be kidding me?” Then, he added, in an irritated tone of voice, “I’m talking to someone right now as a matter of fact.”

 

Immediately pressed by other reporters about the Sioux City and Davenport incidents, the Florida governor claimed to know nothing about them before adding, “I don’t know what’s wrong with you people” and walking off. 

 

In an interview with the AP, Melinda Brooks, an associate professor of diversity studies at the University of Miami, said “you people” is a phrase with echoes of the Jim Crow South. “It is shocking that anyone would use it today,” she said, “let alone a candidate for president of the United States. Especially in the context of refusing to answer the kind of questions we rely on our free and fair press to ask.”

 

PEN America issued a statement strongly denouncing DeSantis’s treatment of the press: “These abusive comments and this disdainful conduct represent a clear and present danger to the First Amendment. Gov. DeSantis constitutes a profound threat to our freedoms.” 

 

DeSantis lingered until the last potential supporter left the Pizza Ranch but refused to answer any more questions about his troubled swing through Iowa.