There is something about political figures and food that CNN Inside Politics host Dana Bash finds intensely fascinating and worthy of deep discussion. On Friday, the subject of discussion was Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis’s interaction on the campaign trail with a child about his Icee and what the impact it will have on his campaign.
During a larger discussion of the state of the DeSantis Campaign and its attempt to reboot itself, Bash introduced a clip of DeSantis, “There was a clip that I think probably is fair to say went sort of viral yesterday… In our world, which is the world that matters on Inside Politics. Ron DeSantis on the campaign trail was on that bus tour that Jessica was talking about interacting with a child about an Icee.”
The video showed the falling exchange:
RON DESANTIS: Yeah, it’s good to meet you too. Oh, what is that?
CHILD: An Icee
RON DESANTIS: An Icee? Yeah? That’s probably a lot of sugar, huh? Good to see you.
After the video, senior political analyst Nia-Malika Henderson declared that “I don’t know what’s more awkward there. The ‘good to see you’ part to a child or the, you know, comments about the calorie count of an Icee. The problem that Ron DeSantis has, and we’ve been talking about it endlessly, doesn’t have a lot of charisma, he’s very awkward on the trail.”
She also insisted that, “sometimes he comes across as a humorless robot. And in a place like Iowa, in a place like New Hampshire where you’re going to be greeting all sorts of people from kids with Icees to grandmas with Icees, he’s got some work to do. Listen, I think the average small town mayor is probably better at sort of the nitty-gritty of politics than Ron DeSantis is. And we’re sort of seeing that over and over in clips like this.”
Henderson never explained what is so awkward about telling a child that it is “good to see you.” While Henderson may be suggesting that DeSantis sugar shamed a child for eating a cold desert in the middle of the summer, other possible explanations include that DeSantis, as a father of young children, is used to keeping an eye on his kids’ sugar intake. Another possibility is that this whole thing is no big deal and CNN needs to make mountains out of molehills in order to fill time.
This segment was sponsored by ADT Security Services.
Here is a transcript for the July 28 show:
CNN Inside Politics with Dana Bash
7/28/2023
12:38 PM
DANA BASH: Ron DeSantis is trying. There was a clip that I think probably is fair to say went sort of viral yesterday.
ASTEAD HERNDON: Yeah.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: In our world.
BASH: In our world, which is the world that matters on Inside Politics. Ron DeSantis on the campaign trail was on that bus tour that Jessica was talking about interacting with a child about an icee.
RON DESANTIS: Yeah, it’s good to meet you too. Oh, what is that?
CHILD: An Icee
DESANTIS: An Icee? Yeah? That’s probably a lot of sugar, huh? Good to see you.
HENDERSON: Yeah, I don’t know what’s more awkward there. The “good to see you” part to a child or the, you know, comments about the calorie count of an Icee. The problem that Ron DeSantis has, and we’ve been talking about it endlessly, doesn’t have a lot of charisma, he’s very awkward on the trail.
And sometimes he comes across as a humorless robot. And in a place like Iowa, in a place like New Hampshire where you’re going to be greeting all sorts of people from kids with Icees to grandmas with Icees, he’s got some work to do. Listen, I think the average small town mayor is probably better at sort of the nitty-gritty of politics than Ron DeSantis is. And we’re sort of seeing that over and over in clips like this.