While giving a daily briefing at a hospital near Miami, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was interrupted by a protester who called for DeSantis' resignation.
Video from the press conference shows the protester yelling over DeSantis, accusing him of "falsifying information" and having "no plan" to combat the pandemic.
"Shame on you!" the protester said.
He was later led out of the room by security. As guards grabbed him, the protester asked them to "social distance" and not touch him. The guards led him out of the media event anyway.
DeSantis did not respond to the comments.
I just interrupted a press conference in Miami-Dade to let governor @RonDeSantisFL and @MayorGimenez know they are an embarrassment to FL and that their incompetence and lack of planning has resulted in the current public health crisis.
4,381 people have died so far in FL pic.twitter.com/q6SozHfT8o
— Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) July 13, 2020
Thomas Kennedy, who says he is the Florida State coordinator of the United We Dream foundation, took credit for interrupting DeSantis and tweeted a first-person video of the incident. WPLG-TV confirmed Kennedy was the man in the video.
Kennedy told WPLG that he was upset with DeSantis' response to the pandemic and says the governor was too quick to lift lockdown restrictions.
Florida is currently experiencing one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the world. Over the weekend, the state saw 15,800 new coronavirus infections — the most any state has seen in a day since the pandemic began. Deaths per day linked to the virus are also on the rise, according to Johns Hopkins.
As of Monday evening, more than 4,200 people in the state had died of the coronavirus.
