It was the kind of robust query a Republican presidential candidate would possibly get on a Sunday morning discuss present, solely the particular person asking it was 15: Quinn Mitchell needed to know if Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida believed that former President Donald J. Trump had violated the peaceable switch of energy on Jan. 6, 2021.
Video of the uncomfortable change at a June 27 city corridor in Hollis, N.H., for Mr. DeSantis, who dodged the query, ricocheted on-line. So did the pair’s subsequent encounter at a July 4 parade in Merrimack, N.H., the place a video confirmed Quinn, an aspiring journalist, being shooed away by a handler for the Florida governor.
But {the teenager} mentioned he was not ready for what occurred on Friday, when he was briefly ejected by law enforcement officials from the First within the Nation Leadership Summit, a candidate showcase organized by the New Hampshire Republican Party. The two-day occasion in Nashua, N.H., featured Mr. DeSantis and a lot of the G.O.P. discipline, however not Mr. Trump.
“They said, ‘We know who you are,’” Quinn, who has his personal political weblog and podcast, mentioned in a telephone interview on Saturday from his house in Walpole, N.H., referring to the organizers of the summit.
Quinn, who acquired a visitor credential for the summit from the state’s G.O.P., mentioned an individual related to the occasion had advised him that he had a historical past of being disruptive and had accused him of being a tracker, a sort of political operative who data rival candidates.
The subsequent factor he knew, Quinn mentioned, he was being led to a personal room and was then ushered out of the Sheraton Nashua resort by native law enforcement officials. His ejection was first reported by The Boston Globe.
Jimmy Thompson, a spokesman for the New Hampshire Republican Party, mentioned in a textual content message on Saturday that the teenager’s elimination had been a mistake.
“During the course of the two-day event, an overzealous volunteer mistakenly made the decision to have Quinn removed from the event, thinking he was a Democrat tracker,” Mr. Thompson wrote. “Once the incident came to our staff’s attention, NHGOP let him back into the event, where he was free to enjoy the rest of the summit.”
In an e mail on Sunday morning, Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for the DeSantis marketing campaign, wrote, “We were not involved in that decision.”
A public info officer for the Nashua Police Department additionally didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Saturday.
According to his web site, Quinn has attended greater than 80 presidential marketing campaign occasions since he was 10, profiting from New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation standing within the nominating course of to pose inquiries to candidates.
He mentioned he needed to listen to former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey communicate on Friday, together with the businessman Perry Johnson, a long-shot candidate.
At a city corridor that includes Mr. Christie in April, Quinn had requested one other pointed query: Would Hillary Clinton have been higher than Mr. Trump as president?
Mr. Christie, the previous president’s loudest critic within the G.O.P. discipline, answered that he nonetheless would have chosen Mr. Trump within the 2016 election, describing the competition as “the biggest hold-your-nose-and-vote choice” the American individuals ever had.
About two months later, it was Mr. DeSantis’s flip to discipline a query from Quinn, this one about Mr. Trump’s actions on Jan. 6.
“Are you in high school? said Mr. DeSantis, who has faced criticism as a candidate for not being fluid when interacting with voters and journalists, a dynamic that has made for some awkward exchanges on the campaign trail.
The Florida governor pivoted, arguing that if the 2024 election focused on “relitigating things that happened two, three years ago, we’re going to lose.”
Quinn mentioned that it didn’t look like a coincidence that he was kicked out of the occasion on Friday earlier than Mr. DeSantis’s remarks, which he had deliberate to skip.
“They know the story between me and DeSantis,” he mentioned.
By the time he was allowed to return to the occasion, Quinn mentioned he was capable of catch Mr. DeSantis’s remarks. But when the governor opened it up for a query, Quinn left.
“OK, one quick question, what do you got?” Mr. DeSantis requested an viewers member.
Nicholas Nehamas contributed reporting.
Source: www.nytimes.com