‘Are you blind? Are you blind?’ Ron DeSantis snaps at Associated Press reporter for asking why he took no questions from voters – while he was posing for selfies and signing autographs

Ron DeSantis exploded at an Associated Press reporter on Thursday for asking why he was taking no questions from voters at a campaign stop in Manchester, New Hampshire.

The 2024 Republican presidential hopeful began the event alongside wife Casey with a speech hitting on his favorite political topics including the ‘war on woke’ and ‘sending Joe Biden to his basement’.

In a swipe at Donald Trump, he vowed to ‘end the culture of losing that has infected the Republican Party’ and criticized how recent elections have been ‘flubbed’. 

He then met some of the 250 supporters in the crowd to pose for selfies and sign autographs, when he lashed out at journalist Steve Peoples.

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The moment a frustrated DeSantis turned and responded to the journalist who asked him why he hadn’t taken questions from voters, captured by an NBC News correspondent 

‘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,’ he said in the moment captured by NBC News.

The Florida Governor was chatting to voters individually, but didn’t take questions from reporters. 

His security detail then whisked him away from the press. 

‘That’s disappointing to hear,’ said Vikram Mansharamani, an entrepreneur and former Republican Senate candidate, after viewing the video of the exchange first posted by NBC News.

‘I did not want a monologue; I wanted to see how he interacted with the audience,’ the 49-year-old added.

DeSantis’ press secretary Bryan Griffin criticized the media after the tense exchange.

The 2024 Republican presidential hopeful began the event alongside wife Casey with a speech hitting on his priorities including the ‘war on woke’ and ‘sending Joe Biden to his basement’

He then met some of the 250 supporters in the crowd to pose for selfies and sign autographs, when he lashed out at journalist Steve Peoples

‘This AP reporter asked this question while (he) was surrounded by voters in New Hampshire asking him questions and taking pictures,’ he tweeted. 

‘Perfectly illustrative of the modern media shutting their eyes and ears to the truth to push their narrative.’

DeSantis’ speech to the audience made up mainly of retirees mostly included lines from previous campaign stops.

But he gained a huge round of applause when he raised how he had banned gender transition surgery for minors.

His dig at Trump when he criticized the GOP for their string of election defeats and failed endorsements.

‘But here’s the thing, you can’t do any of this. If you don’t win, there is no substitute for victory,’ he told the crowd.

‘And we’ve got to end this culture of losing that has infected the Republican Party in recent years, you know, we should have 55 Republican senators right now. 

‘And we not flubbed so many races over the last four or six years. ….. We’ve got to get it done and the stakes are high.’

DeSantis, dressed casually in blue jeans and black leather boots, was flanked by his glamorous former TV reporter First Lady Casey.

First Lady Casey praised took the stage and praised her husband. ‘He always puts the interests of the people ahead of his own,’ she told the crowd 

The 42-year-old gave a thinly-veiled nod to her husband’s policies in the Sunshine State by sporting a fitted blue sweatshirt with an Alligator logo warning: ‘Don’t Tread on Florida’

‘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,’ she said.

‘When they go up to particularly places like Washington DC, 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.

‘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.’ 

Scott Nelson, a 75-year-old retired entrepreneur, said the Governor’s performance was ‘terrific’ but insisted it was ‘too early to make any decision’ on how to vote.