DeSantis Interrupted by Protesters During GOP Fundraising Event

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis delivers remarks during the New Hampshire GOP's Amos Tuck Dinner in Manchester, N.H., on April 14, 2023. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was interrupted on Friday evening during a fundraising event for the Republican party in New Hampshire.

Video footage shows two protesters—both with banners in hands—rushing onto the stage while DeSantis was speaking. The protesters can be heard shouting “Jews against DeSantis” while the audience booed.

The protesters tried to display the banners but failed before they were cleared from the stage by security and organizers.

It’s unclear what messages the banners carried.

“You gotta have a little spice in the speech, right?” DeSantis joked while the protesters were being escorted away. “You gotta have a little fun.”

The audience burst into applause.

The Epoch Times reached out to DeSantis’s office for comments.

A group named “If Not Now” claimed in a social media post that the protesters belong to their movement.

According to their website, If Not Now is “a movement of American Jews organizing our community for equality, justice, and a thriving future for all.” However, the group shows clear anti-Israel and left-leaning ideologies.

One photo from their website shows they held a group photo with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a high-profile socialist. In other photos, the group can be seen holding banners against Fox News Network, “white nationalism,” and Israel’s military activities in Gaza.

DeSantis Hits Woke Agenda Outside Florida

The Sunshine State governor—who is also widely regarded as a 2024 presidential hopeful—was attending the “2023 Amos Tuck Dinner,” a fundraising event hosted by the New Hampshire Republican Party, in Manchester, New Hampshire.

DeSantis drew about 500 Republicans to hear him speak for the first time in New Hampshire.

Before introducing DeSantis, Christopher Ager, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Committee, announced that the longstanding Amos Tuck annual dinner fundraiser raised a historic $328,000.

DeSantis won himself some heavy rounds of applause and even some approving whistles, especially when he touched on key issues for conservatives as the growing push in public schools for transgender children.

“It is wrong to tell a second grader that they were born in the wrong body,” said DeSantis, who called Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs “a Trojan horse for leftist ideology to be imposed on the student body through the guise of the administration.”

“I think DEI, as it’s practiced more properly, stands for discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination,” he added.

Alice Giordano and Reuters contributed to this report.