Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis continues his potentially ill-fated run for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination for 2024 — and he continues to face setbacks, including just in terms of public image.
During a stop in Iowa this week as part of a bus tour through the early (in presidential primary terms) state, a protester with a bullhorn confronted DeSantis as he meandered about. “Go back to Florida!” the demonstrator shouted, eventually being accosted by a bystander who was seen on camera putting his hands on the megaphone. The man confronting the protester claimed the shouting was hurting his ears. The bus had stopped in a wide open area where there wasn’t a very large crowd, so there was plenty of room for anyone to distance themselves. As this loudly goes on, DeSantis can be seen slowly walking through the surroundings, not visibly reacting to the chants.
Footage of the confrontation was spotlighted by The Recount. The encounter follows incidents like DeSantis arguably berating a young child at a fair in the state for having an Icee on account of its sugar and interrupting a teenager elsewhere in Iowa who’d been discussing mental health problems. DeSantis, though he later more directly acknowledged the teen’s questions about opportunities for military service, interrupted to make a quip about Democratic Party politicians supposedly not minding his young age and letting him vote anyway. There remains no evidence of any kind of widespread corruption in recent U.S. elections. Investigations completed at local, state, and national levels consistently found no indication of a conspiracy or something systematic.
Though he had much higher levels of support earlier this year — before he formally confirmed his expected campaign, DeSantis now stands at about 14 percent in national polling from the GOP primary. Close behind him is Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman. Trump continues to hold the overwhelming majority of Republican voters’ support.
An altercation ensues as a woman shouts, “Go back to Florida, pudding fingers!” during Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) Iowa bus tour on the presidential campaign trail. pic.twitter.com/c4GgybfFCq
— The Recount (@therecount) August 11, 2023
