Is Florida's Republican candidate for governor, Ron DeSantis, a bully? Does he insult people when he's asked questions that he doesn't like, or that he doesn't know how to answer?
That's the way he came across in the eyes of many viewers _ including some Republicans _ when I interviewed him for my "Oppenheimer Presenta" show that aired Sunday night on CNN en Espanol.
DeSantis, one of President Trump's most enthusiastic supporters, seemed to lose his temper when I asked him about the controversial TV ad in which he is seen playing with brick-like blocks with his baby girl, and tells her to "build the wall," an obvious reference to wall that Trump wants to build along the Mexican border.
In the same 30-second ad, which drew national attention, DeSantis appears to read to his child from Trump's book "The Art of the Deal," saying, "Then Mr. Trump said, 'You're fired.' I love that part."
Sunday, I asked DeSantis, "What do you say to people that find it revolting for you to teach your baby to build a wall between people, instead of uniting people, and to teach your baby to fire people, instead of creating jobs? What do you say to people who say that you're bringing the worst out of people?"
Visibly angry, DeSantis responded, "Do you honestly think that that was a serious ad, that I am reading "The Art of the Deal" to my son, who's only 6 months? If you honestly believe that, then you need to get a sense of humor."
He added that, "We wanted to be able to introduce my family, but do it in a way that would poke fun at ourselves, but also get earned media. So that's what we did. And if you don't understand that, then you're just not very bright."
Frankly, neither I nor many other people had found that ad funny. I asked DeSantis, "Would you agree that many people didn't find it funny at all?"
"Well, people need to get a sense of humor," DeSantis responded heatedly. "There's no reasonable person who's not caught up in being very biased who would honestly think that we were not doing that tongue in cheek."
Later on, I asked him whether he agrees with Trump's assertion that the number of deaths from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was not much larger than the six to 18 that were originally reported, rather than the more than 3,600 deaths counted by a George Washington University study and sanctioned by the Puerto Rico government.
DeSantis seemed to lose his temper once again. "All you're looking to do, all you want to do is use this stuff to politicize it to try to attack Trump. That's all you're doing," he said.
I responded that it was a legitimate question, considering that Florida has a large Puerto Rican population, and that the slow U.S. response to the destruction of last year's Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico is one of the top issues for many Puerto Rican voters.
DeSantis responded that the different death tolls were due to different methodologies used to count the dead, and again accused me of trying to politicize the issue.
Finally, I asked DeSantis how many people does he think died directly or indirectly as a result of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico _ whether it was tens, dozens, hundreds or thousands. He claimed that "You're not asking substantive questions. You're not asking me what we can do in Florida to help continue to integrate the Puerto Rican people that have fled Puerto Rico and Orlando to get them jobs to make sure they have good education."
DeSantis has obviously a short fuse. That's annoying, and makes him look amateurish, but it's not a federal crime. Furthermore, I appreciate the fact that he talked to me, considering that he has declined interviews with the South Florida's three major newspapers and is known to speak mostly with sympathetic reporters.
What's more troubling is his apparent habit of courting white nationalist voters with thinly veiled racist or xenophobic remarks, and the claim they were made in jest, or not aimed at any ethnic group.
DeSantis had already drawn accusations of using a racist expression when he said in another TV interview that voters should not "monkey this up" by electing his rival Andrew Gillum as Florida's governor. Gillum is black and would be the first black governor of Florida if he wins.
Much like with the ad where he teaches his son to build a wall, De Santis later claimed there were no racial nor xenophobic overtones in his "monkey" statement. His response was seen by many as an insult to voters' intelligence.
My advice to DeSantis: Relax. Next time a journalist asks you about an issue you don't want to talk about, do what most politicians do: Put on your best smile and shift the conversation to a place where you want it to go, without getting angry or insulting people who want real answers.
When you lash out against legitimate questions that are in many people's minds, you are only hurting yourself.
