Climate protester tackled at Ron DeSantis event

A climate protester was caught in wild video being bum-rushed off stage and tackled to the ground as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke at a presidential campaign event in Iowa.

DeSantis was speaking to hundreds of people at a BBQ restaurant in Ames on Thursday evening when three activists apparently from the Sunrise Movement shouted at him and accused him of taking money from the fossil fuel industry.

“Excuse me, hold on. Excuse me, I’m doing this,” DeSantis snapped at the interruption. “I know you have an agenda. Stop!”

The GOP presidential candidate told the crowd that the protester wants people to “pay more for gas.”

“We’re not going to let people like that win,” he said to cheers.

A second protester then rushed to the stage holding a banner reading “DESANTIS: CLIMATE CRIMINAL.”

“Ron DeSantis is a climate criminal!” the man yelled, as caught on video shared on X.

Almost as soon as the protesters stepped on the stage, at least two members of the security team grabbed him and tackled him off of the stage, pinning him to the ground.

“That’s exhibit A” for “what’s wrong with the college system,” the governor said to cheers, though there was no clear indication the young protesters were college students. Ames is home to Iowa State University.

“If you’re gonna do that, like he was like stumbling around to get his flag out. Like he telegraphed that a mile away,” DeSantis said dismissively of the tackled protester.

A woman also shouted from the crowd soon after she was hauled off, too.

DeSantis, who debated former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley a day earlier, continued with his remarks before taking questions about his policy positions.

“We take questions from folks all the time,” DeSantis told reporters ltare. “Yeah, I’m not going to let these, these numb-nuts rush the stage or do anything like that, but I mean people that ask, you know, normal, respectful questions, we’re happy to do.”

The Sunshine State governor was on his fourth event of the day during his whirlwind tour of Iowa in the final push to the Iowa Caucus on Jan. 15.

The Sunrise Movement, a nonprofit group that aims to fight climate change, also interrupted DeSantis during his Fox News town hall on Tuesday, according to the Washington Examiner.

On its website, the organization describes itself as a “movement of young people fighting to stop the climate crisis and win a green new deal” working to “force the government to end the era of fossil fuel elites, invest in Black, brown and working class communities.”

With Post Wires