Ron DeSantis Snaps at Reporter in Clip Viewed 1.6m Times

A video of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis snapping at a reporter after he asked a question has gone viral on Twitter.

While speaking at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, Israel, DeSantis responded to a reporter who questioned him about the accusations he was present when inmates were subject to force-feeding.

DeSantis was in Israel on April 27 as part of his overseas trade mission. The governor has already met government and business leaders in Japan and South Korea and is expected to visit the U.K. in the coming days.

Commentator Ron Filipkowski shared a video of the moment on his Twitter page on Thursday and the clip has so far been viewed more than 1.7 million times.

He captioned the video: "Not ready for prime time. DeSantis melts down today outside the protective bubble of his carefully controlled scripted FL events."

Off-camera a journalist can be heard asking if DeSantis any incidents during his time in Guantanamo Bay.

DeSantis interrupted and snapped, calling the reporter's question B.S.

The reporter continued: "Some people have said that you were present during force feedings? Is that true?"

DeSantis replied: "Who said that? How would they know me?

"Okay think about it, do you honestly believe that is credible? So this is 2006, I am a junior officer, do you honestly think they would have remembered me?

"Of course not, they are just trying to get into the news because they know people like you will consume it because it fits your preordained narrative that you are trying to spin.

"Focus on the facts and stop worrying about the narrative."

DeSantis did then receive a round of applause as he turned away to answer more questions from reporters.

In the comment section, Filipkowski shared a clip that went viral earlier in April that may have prompted the reporter's question.

The clip is from a CBS News broadcast that showed old footage of DeSantis in 2018 discussing Guantanamo Bay.

In the clip, DeSantis spoke about the inmates staging hunger strikes at the facility, with three of these resulting in deaths.

He said: "Everything at that time was legal in nature one way or another so the commander wants to know 'how do I combat this?'

"One of the jobs of the legal adviser would say 'hey you actually can force feed, here is what you can do, here are kind of the rules for that."

The viral clip then cut to an interview with Mansoor Adayfi, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay who was held for 14 years without being charged with a crime.

Adayfi said during a time he was being force-fed, DeSantis was in the room.

Adayfi said: "During the feeding, a group of officers arrived with the interpreters, with the interrogators, medical staff, campus staff, they were behind the fence.

"I saw one of them was Ron DeSantis in a military uniform. I was screaming because I couldn't breathe and I was bleeding because they really inserted a thick tube into my nose.

"He was actually laughing with the other officers and smiling, so this is my second encounter with Ron DeSantis."

DeSantis joined the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate in 2006, four years after the facility opened, and has not offered much in the way of public comment about his time there.

DeSantis has not publicly addressed Adayfi's allegations, which could not be independently verified.

When asked about the viral video by Newsweek, DeSantis' press secretary Bryan Griffin dismissed the notion that he snapped at the journalist and said the narrative only "serves to cover for the unprofessional conduct of the activist reporter."

He added: "Governor DeSantis rightfully shut down a fake narrative. His answer speaks for itself."