A video captured a former Lake Worth city commissioner confronting Gov. Rick Scott as he stopped for coffee Tuesday in Gainesville.
“You cut Medicaid, so I couldn’t get Obamacare,” said the woman, Cara Jennings, who then called him a derogatory word. “You don’t care about working people. You should be ashamed to show your face around here.”
Scott responded by telling her he’s created a million jobs.
“A million jobs? Great, who here has a great job?” she says. “Or is looking forward to finishing school? Do you really feel like you have a job coming up?”
She then asked, “Who here has a great job?” Scott can be heard responding, “You should…”
Jennings, 39, who served two terms as a Lake Worth commissioner in 2006 and 2010, told Scott he stripped women of access to public health care as he turns to leave the Starbucks.
“Shame on you Rick Scott,” she says. “We depend on those services. Rich people like you don’t know what to do! When poorer people like us need services you cut them. Shame on you Rick Scott! You’re an embarrassment to our state!”
Scott can be heard saying something in response just before leaving the store, but it’s not audible in the video.
YouTube user Stephen Bender posted the clip to his account Tuesday.
Jennings told WFTS-TV in Tampa that she just happened to be working in the Starbucks on her laptop when she noticed the Florida governor enter the restaurant.
“I saw his profile, and I thought, ‘Is that the governor?’” she said.
She’d been reading about Scott signing a bill that cuts money for Planned Parenthood and seized the opportunity to speak her mind.
“I didn’t think about whether I should do it or not,” she told WFTS-TV. “I thought, 'Here’s my chance to tell the governor how I feel about the horrible bill.'”
Jennings, now a stay at home Palm Beach County mom who works part time, said she knows that many people finding jobs are receiving low wages, which is why she dismissed Scott's response about job creation.
She thinks the encounter stunned others in the store into silence, but that changed.
“A number of people came up to me and thanked me,” she said.
Scott responded to questions about the confrontation after an event in West Boca Raton today.
"I didn’t see the video, but I was there. She was not somebody you could talk to,” he said.
He estimated he’s met more than 400,000 Floridians since taking office in 2010. He said he tries to listen to their concerns and ideas each time.
He pointed out the state’s budget includes money for health prevention services available at county health departments and clinics, including about $100,000 for Planned Parenthood.
As far as Jennings’ comments on Medicaid, Scott said that is something the federal government should fund.
“Don’t come to Florida and ask us to tax our taxpayers for a federal program. I don’t believe in that,” he said.
