Not to step on Betty C’s territory, but this was infuriating:
New — Quinn Mitchell, a teenager in NH known for his sharp questions, is coming forward for the first time in @thedailybeast to detail his nightmarish experiences with DeSantis security.
It all started with a simple question, but got uglier from there:https://t.co/6VznjVlSU3
— Jake Lahut (@JakeLahut) September 1, 2023
Excerpts, but please read the entire article, worth your time, though it may elevate your blood pressure:
Quinn Mitchell has seen at least 35 presidential candidates in person since 2019, when he first started showing up at New Hampshire primary events to ask them questions.
Not a single one of them had ever treated the now-15-year-old as if he were a threat—until came to town.
It all started with a straightforward question. In June, when DeSantis stopped for a town hall event in Hollis, Mitchell raised his hand in the crowd.
“Do you believe that Trump violated the peaceful transfer of power,” the teenager asked the governor, “a key principle of American democracy that we must uphold?”
DeSantis dodged the question and said Americans shouldn’t get stuck in the past, but not before remarking—in a somewhat impressed, incredulous tone—on Mitchell’s age. “Are you in high school?” the governor asked.
The moment went viral, with DeSantis’ non-answer encapsulating how even Donald Trump’s lead primary rival could not bring himself to acknowledge the former president’s efforts to undo the 2020 election. CNN even played it during an interview with Chris Christie to tee up a question to the Trump foe.
For Mitchell, however, the exchange kicked off a series of events that deeply rattled him and his family.
….
At a Fourth of July parade DeSantis attended, Mitchell was swarmed by security and physically restrained after a brief interaction with the governor—with his private security contractors even demanding Mitchell stay put until they said so.
With his mother alarmed, the situation escalated to such a degree that the candidate’s wife, Casey, spoke directly with her—but to suggest her son was being dishonest about what happened, according to Mitchell.
Then, at an August 19 event—where Mitchell was tailed closely by two security guards—an attendee told The Daily Beast they saw a staffer for DeSantis’ super PAC, Never Back Down, take a photo of the teenager on Snapchat before typing out an ominous caption: “Got our kid.”
…
In New Hampshire, they’ve already pushed a precocious and passionate teenager to consider quitting politics altogether.
“I may be older now and know I can handle this a lot more, but if they had done that to me a few years back, I don’t know if I could have handled that,” Mitchell said. “It’s unfortunate, because I just want to ask my question.”
In the nation’s first primary state, where individual voters can have an outsized impact on the process, Mitchell made himself a staple of the New Hampshire political scene before he was even a teenager.
A self-described political independent who loves history and politics, Mitchell sees it as his “civic duty” to show up to ask questions, especially on behalf of “people who live in other states and the people who want to ask those questions,” who “don’t always get the opportunity.”
Before DeSantis, presidential candidates have not just tolerated the teenager but seemed to genuinely appreciate him. In the 2020 Democratic primary, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) met with Mitchell and later worked his enthusiasm for politics into her stump speech.
More recently, Christie not only gave him a shoutout during the CNN interview—“he goes to every town hall meeting… he asks really tough questions”—but was quoted in a recent USA Today profile of Mitchell. “Quinn, remember me when you are president,” the former New Jersey governor quipped.
…After his question about Jan. 6 blew up on DeSantis, Mitchell—who was not intending to land a punch on the governor—said he “genuinely felt bad about it.” A few days later, he woke up early for the hour-and-a-half drive to Merrimack, where he intended to personally say as much to DeSantis at the town’s Fourth of July parade.
…
Read more here it gets worse
The Fourth of July parade part is truly frightening. He was grabbed and restrained by a mass of DeSantis goons and then when his mom protested, Casey DeSantis weighed in, saying her son was “exaggerating” the incident. According to bystanders, he was not.
DeFascist really cannot go away soon enough.
Open thread
Jeffg166
Ronald is quite a snowflake.
Tim Curtin
DeSantis is GITMO come home.
Mathguy
You’re right about blood boiling. I can’t believe the assholes could get away with that treatment of him. What a terrifying group of fascists.
Wyatt Salamanca
Another day, another anecdote of DeSantis being an asshole.
I look forward to this clueless motherfucker dropping out of the race after a humiliating defeat in the New Hampshire primary.
Suzanne
I hope they sue DeSantis and his goons into oblivion.
Alison Rose
Man, Casey can fuck off. Ugh. I loathe her almost as much as her shitass husband.
cope
This enraged me when I read it earlier today and it enraged me yet again reading the excerpts here. This is plain, evil stuff.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Makes DeSantis look like the most cowardly coward that ever cringed in cowardly fear. Which is pretty much what he is. Can’t hide your true self forever when you run for POTUS.
JPL
GA primaries are open because you don’t have to declare a party. You can only vote in one primary though. If the asshole is still a contender, I’m voting for trump.
rikyrah
Can’t handle a question by a teenager?😠😠😠
Cameron
Dude’s got a major problem with teenagers – I remember when he jumped on a bunch of high school kids because they dared to wear masks while he was on stage with them….during the height of the pandemic. What a worthless waste of DNA.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@rikyrah: Not just that! He needs a bunch of goons to protect him from questions from a teenager. They even doxed him they were so afraid of his questions. Cowardly coward.
Chetan Murthy
During the Reign of the Chimperor, Darth Cheney did a small rally (or something like that), and a grandfather and his son were walking by, said something disparaging about Cheney, and boy howdy, Cheney’s security came down hard on the grandfather. Creeping fascism. So many fucking right-wingers refused to recognize it back then.
Baud
@JPL:
A Biden to Trump voter! Expect the NYT to be at your diner soon to interview you.
eclare
How is retail politics so hard? You have a cute kid who loves politics, get photos together! Do things like Amy and Christie did! It’s just stunning that someone running for pres needs to be told “don’t go pretend Machiavelli on a teenager.”
M31
good question from the teenager!
Hmmm, who from the professional press has asked that question?
eclare
@Cameron:
I remember that. DeeSantis gave them his perm-a-scowl.
BlueGuitaristswu
W
matt
well, that’s a pretty typical Republican style of answering tough questions.
Cameron
@eclare: Yeah, his Rage Potato look.
Another Scott
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Isn’t it a requirement for them to be cowards? Seriously.
The guys going out in public with submachine guns.
The guys who have to take pistols to libraries or churches.
They’re all cowards.
And they know that they cannot win fair elections. That’s why they have to try to control the narrative and try to crush anyone who gets in the way.
Grr…,
Scott.
eclare
@Cameron:
Ha! I am stealing that.
It’s rare to be able to whine and rage at the same time, but somehow he does.
JPL
@Baud: Biden to trump to Biden.
eclare
Bill Clinton had an egg thrown at him when he was visiting Poland in 2001. He just said it was good for young people to be angry about things. DeeSantis would have them thrown in jail.
Oops. Just googled apparently the guy was arrested. But not because Bill went apeshit.
zhena gogolia
@eclare: What happened to the guy who threw a shoe at Dubya? He dodged it quite adeptly.
BeautifulPlumage
@Another Scott: speaking of
This 26 yo snuck a gun into the stadium by hiding it in her belly fat. Shot herself and a 42 yo woman.
Mike in NC
Meatball Ron took no chances. The kid might have gotten woke cooties on him!
NutmegAgain
I am heartened to know we have 15 year olds like Quinn among us. Good job Quinn’s parents & teachers. (And in New Hampshire no less!). Yeah, the DeSantis campaign comes across as monumentally stupid, from avoiding the kid, to having bodyguards basically muscle him around, to Jackie No lying to his mother’s face about her son. Talk about tone-deaf! All it would have taken is a short, “wow your son really knows a lot for his age. Did he learn that at home?” but no, Casey the Berobed had to call him a liar to his mother’s face. Massive eye-roll.
eclare
@zhena gogolia:
I don’t know. But that was a skillful duck, I don’t know if that was from playing baseball or what. Srsly, I would have gotten a shoe in the face.
According to teh Google, the shoe thrower served around nine months.
hilts
DeSantis is giving Pence and Scott a run for their money to become the leading jellyfish in this campaign.
piratedan
@NutmegAgain: in a way, I wish that Quinn’s Mom had gone full Karen on them and charged them with assault.
eclare
@hilts:
I prefer the term invertebrate. Literally no backbone.
Villago Delenda Est
Casey DeathSentence is as much a fascist pig as her husband.
M31
@zhena gogolia: as eclare said, he went to jail for a while, but my favorite part of that story was that that particular model of shoe instantly sold out all over the Middle East
I think someone built a statue of the shoe, not sure if it lasted long, though.
Odie Hugh Manatee
He couldn’t handle a question from a 15 year old kid and a majority of conservative Floridians thought this piece of shit was governor material…lol!
This kid has a future, unlike Ron DeMented.
zhena gogolia
@M31: So kind of like the folding chair.
Joseph Patrick Lurker
Time to stick a fork in DeSantis, he’s incredibly well-done.
Ruckus
@Wyatt Salamanca:
He’s such a big asshole, even his bloated, worse than useless head would slide right in. And likely has on numerous occasions. Hell he might just as well keep it parked there, easier than taking it out and back in so often.
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
I think she gives him what little spine he has.
He looks like a dirty dishrag in a large restaurant kitchen. And I’m being nice to him.
smintheus
Small point, but why can’t journalists get their facts straight? Hollis can’t be more than about 15 miles from Merrimack, 30 minutes max.
Tony G
@Odie Hugh Manatee: The sad thing is that the “good people” of Florida would probably re-elect DeSantis to a third term, if they could. People like him didn’t arrive in a flying saucer. They were ELECTED.
bbleh
“But he has no clothes…!”
The peasant was immediately swarmed by the King’s knights and hauled away to the dungeons.
Aj
@Alison Rose: yes I am sick of Casey the elbow gloved helicopter wife that takes care of mr snowflake as he cannot handle shit.
Her trying to look like Jackie Kennedy is just too much. To paraphrase Dan Quayle’s opponent, “I remember Jackie and you are no Jackie Kennedy.”