Phil Ammann
During a visit to a Starbucks in downtown Gainesville, Gov. Rick Scott got an earful from an angry woman over his refusal to expand Medicaid to low-income Floridians.
“You cut Medicaid so I couldn’t get Obamacare,” the woman, identified as former Lake Worth City Commissioner Cara Jennings, yells at Scott. “You’re an asshole. You don’t care about working people. You should be ashamed to show your face around here.”
The 47-second video was captured by another patron and uploaded by YouTube user Stephen Bender.
When Scott responded that he created 1 million jobs, Jennings was less than impressed.
“A million jobs?” she answered incredulously while looking around. “Great, who here has a great job? I was looking forward to finishing school. You really feel you have a job coming up?”
Jennings then scolded the governor for stripping money and assets of public health care.
“Shame on you Rick Scott,” she added. “We depend on those services. Rich people like you don’t know what to do.”
As Scott walked out the door, Jennings called him an “embarrassment to our state.”
Jennings is no stranger to controversy. Before serving two terms as a Lake Worth City Commissioner, she was one of the founding members of the “Radical Cheerleaders,” a mostly female group of protesters for a variety of political causes.
Writing for In These Times, Andrew Stelzer described the Cheerleaders in 2006 as such:
“Their fishnet-stocking, punked-out leather outfits and shredded garbage bag pom-poms caught on, as did their obscenity-laced chants against the neo-liberal agenda, the WTO and various other political causes. As the worldwide protest movement rose in the late ‘90s, the radical cheerleaders became fixtures at anti-globalization rallies, and cheerleading troupes have sprung up around the world.”
Jennings, a self-described “anarchist,” won a seat on the Lake Worth City Commission in 2006 to the surprise of some, serving through 2010. She told The Palm Beach Post that she remains an active participant in city meetings and civil discussions after leaving office.
With her background of political activism, it is less than surprising that Jennings took the golden opportunity to accost Scott in the Starbucks, being in the right place at the right time.
The video is now available on YouTube.
58 comments
G. Carter
April 6, 2016 at 7:18 am
The sad part is that because he didn’t have outlined media questions and a speech prepared, he just blew her off….how sad.
iola
April 6, 2016 at 3:25 pm
exactly, very sad…what a jerk
Arturo Oliva
April 6, 2016 at 8:00 am
Yes BRAVO young lady run for office you have my vote; we need people like you thank you
Arturo Oliva
April 6, 2016 at 8:00 am
She should run for office she has my vote
crella
April 7, 2016 at 9:01 am
She held office- she is former Lake Worth City Commissioner Cara Jennings. This was an ambush. The “patron” who just happened to have a camera is a political blogger.
David Aldridge
April 6, 2016 at 8:09 am
Bravo! Keep saying what needs to be said.
rbockman
April 6, 2016 at 8:59 am
angry woman? crazy, profane woman.
DelawareJack
April 6, 2016 at 9:03 am
When was Cara Jennings released from that mental ward she had been sent to? … She is a major nutcase and really needs to go back on her looney tunes meds ….
Rick
April 6, 2016 at 10:11 am
Typical liberal. Claims to be poor and need government assistance because she can’t figure out how to take care of herself and needs a “nanny” to control her life and make decisions for her. Yet she is sitting in a very expensive overpriced coffee shop. So she’s also a hypocrite as well. Sad, pathetic female.
shanell
April 6, 2016 at 11:41 am
Just because she sitting in a high price coffee shop doesnt mean she has money. She can just be using the internet. I go to starbucks and i am not rich. I use the internet. That women was right. I work for florida state corrections and he dont want to pay us and all the work we do. RICK putting money in his pocket
John
April 6, 2016 at 10:37 am
And Rick Scott was civil and tried to engage her. The lunatic left wants no discussion; they are just full of hate speech, vile, illogical, emotionally-based, self-centered ego-maniacs. Whoever knows her, please tell her for me she is what is wrong with America. She lost an opportunity to actually learn something.
kwr
April 6, 2016 at 10:44 am
If she’s so poor why is she in Starbucks buying a $5.00 cup of coffee?
John E. B. Good
April 6, 2016 at 11:25 am
Exactly! hard to feel sorry for anyone paying $5 for a cup of coffee. There’s a solution for only being able to get a minimum wage job – learn a skill! Minimum wage jobs are better than NO JOBS. I suppose you lefties would prefer the 1,000,000 people now employed to be drawing welfare and doing nothing for it?
Oran Lindquist
April 6, 2016 at 1:37 pm
Cara Jennings-a true heroine. Good V.P pick for Bernie. Rick did not deny he is an asshole. Why bother:)
martha
April 6, 2016 at 10:47 am
it was sweet. Well done!
Jack Freeman
April 6, 2016 at 10:51 am
Give her a Medal of Valor for service to her country…she needs to run for office!!
CrazyPasta
April 6, 2016 at 12:03 pm
“Jennings, a self-described “anarchist,” won a seat on the Lake Worth City Commission in 2006 to the surprise of some, serving through 2010.”
If she’s an anarchist she should be happy if she thinks officials are doing nothing. Bit of a hypocrit, can’t stand up for her own values.
l britt
April 6, 2016 at 2:05 pm
I didn’t see her with a any coffee. I did notice that the Governor had about 8 people on the “Government roll payroll” following him around while he stops for a his $5.00 coffee.
Tanya Elliott
April 6, 2016 at 2:59 pm
lol all these people talkinga bout the 5$ coffee, yes yes, that 5$ coffee could have bought her thousands of dollars in medical insurance lmfao
Eric Pruss
April 6, 2016 at 4:08 pm
Excellent job
Tim
April 6, 2016 at 5:40 pm
She’s a lazy filthy slob living off the work of others.
julie armendarez
April 6, 2016 at 5:48 pm
This woman , and i use that term loosely is disgusting. She should have been thrown out. People don’t need to hear her whiny screams while getting a freakin latte.
Davy Hardin
April 6, 2016 at 6:00 pm
Stupid Bitch, spoiled brat. People like that ignorant broad is what will eventually distroy America. The governments job is to make laws and protect. Not to wipe you worthless stinking brown hole.
Karen Stock
April 6, 2016 at 6:43 pm
Thank you, Ms.Jennings. You’ve expressed what I and thousand of other Floridians feel. Scott is a heartless crook, who would let Floridians suffer and die to line his own pockets and expand his personal political agenda. If I had been there I would have gladly joined you. I can’t wait to vote this corrupt POS out of office. ?
Karen Stock
April 6, 2016 at 6:53 pm
So sad to see some people are so deluded and distracted, that they are more concerned with why this courageous woman was in Starbucks than what Gov. Scott has done to our state. Do you people realize you are being manipulated into attacking each other, in order to keep us divided and from uniting against the oligarchy?
Rocco
April 6, 2016 at 7:27 pm
To all you a-hole republicans on here defending that scumbag Scott. You deserve that POS. As for this woman she spoke the truth, and she could be in there for the free wifi. Rick Scott is a disgrace.
Ty
April 7, 2016 at 1:39 am
I think she could have got through to the governor in a better, more polite manor rather than ranting and blurting out her views and opinions which she has a right to. I have seen Rick Scott at a Starbucks here in Jacksonville, it’s a pretty atrocious scene with the secret service body guards and all. I thought the governor was suppose to represent the people he doesn’t talk to anyone and is very cold and feels unfriendly. People get off the small aspects of the price of a cup of coffee, look at the bigger picture of the people their actions and body language.
Brian Bink
April 7, 2016 at 2:06 am
She wasn’t having a Starbucks beverage and he bailed out that place like a man with no defense, maybe had he stayed put and debated with her might I believe he has a point, I didn’t hear what he said, should speak up or zip his lip, otherwise what’s the point of speaking in public.
John Oldman
April 7, 2016 at 4:35 am
Unemployment was nearly 10 percent nationwide when Scott took office in January 2011. Nationwide, unemployment is down, and obviously, there are more jobs. But that’s true in every state. Why are Governors (Republican & Democrat) chosen to take credit for this?
Also, I got the impression that the woman was speaking in the past tense, like, maybe her troubles were in her past. But either way, at my Starbucks plain coffee is $1.95 with unlimited refills. When I searched just now, I saw several drinks, even the Grande iced coffee, for less than $2. I think it is hardly fair to pick on her for having needed assistance in the past, and working on her laptop in a Starbucks.
Nevertheless, I am becoming more concerned that we, in this country, feel the need to loose decorum. It saddens me, but the fact that some feel the only course left to them is to shout obsenities to get there point across, is equally worrysome.
I don’t see anything Scott has done to improve our state… that HE has done. If his only retort to a screaming dissatisfied voter is that he added jobs – he’ll probably loose come next election. We’re not fools, and voters have long memories.
crella
April 7, 2016 at 9:05 am
Here is her own Tweet about the encounter-
“I am upset about the awful bill Governor Scott signed last week – cuts funding to Planned Parenthood and restricts abortion access. Just last night I looked online to see if there is a march planned to defend our rights to abortion. And then today, the Governor walked into the coffee shop I was at…..and left with no coffee. (video credit to the stranger who recorded the scene)”
so this wasn’t a chance encounter a brave woman seized in the moment, it was planned.
Nan
April 7, 2016 at 9:27 am
Good on her. She’s right. He’s a lousy Governor out for just himself.
donna white
April 7, 2016 at 10:27 am
She’s hardly a Leader for Women… She’s certifiable ….Sitting there with her expensive computer and complaining about money… Work your way up the ranks (if you can after this)… Problem is: People feel they deserve what they don’t contribute…
Tammy Howe
April 7, 2016 at 2:26 pm
What didn’t get said is that the republicans in this state took control away from the insurance commissioner to regulate the insurance companies. They did this knowing full well that the companies would raise rates so they could then lay blame on Obamacare. Not only did they screw those needing the Medicaid expansion but also screwed the rest of the Floridians (Democrat or Republican) and Florida companies by allowing those rate increases to go unchallenged.
FLORIDA
April 7, 2016 at 8:09 pm
He got what was coming! Bravo!
Enrique
April 8, 2016 at 8:29 pm
This stupid woman need to get off welfare! I made 23k last year at my FT job. I made to much that I couldn’t get free ObamaCare to much that I had to get student loan of 2750 per semester and the insurance at my job was too expensive so I had to pay the ObamaCare penalty… Now I know were my penalty money goes to… To fat old ladies at drinking coffee at Starbucks!
Nick
June 3, 2016 at 2:23 pm
just an observation, anyone who thinks Rick Scott or any of his ilk have been good for florida, one thing you NEED to look at is the steadily declining schools as they cut the budget and cut the budget, institute and allow discriminatory programs like Magnet Schools to exist (“public” schools that can pick and choose the best students, leaving the normal public schools with the leftovers and then they compete?) and also the wage rates in florida for the working class. And if you think any of that is good, you obviously went to school in florida or somewhere with an equally abyssmal educational system…
Nick
June 3, 2016 at 2:27 pm
just an observation, anyone who thinks Rick Scott or any of his ilk have been good for florida, one thing you NEED to look at is the steadily declining schools as they cut the budget and cut the budget, institute and allow discriminatory programs like Magnet Schools to exist (“public” schools that can pick and choose the best students, leaving the normal public schools with the leftovers and then they compete?) and also the wage rates in florida for the working class. And if you think any of that is good, you obviously went to school in florida or somewhere with an equally abyssmal educational system… Oh and I’m not a starbucks person (I prefer cumberland farms coffee, self serve and cheaper) but jesus I went there once, got coffee for me and my dad, and I recall it coming out to 5 bucks and change for both coffees.. I’m sure 5 dollar coffee idiot on here would disagree, but um, starbucks DOES have a website, check that you moron before name calling, k? k. also, wtf are you putting in your sb coffee to make it cost 5 bucks? a double shot of EVERYTHING?
Nick
June 3, 2016 at 2:33 pm
also, if a person is poor they’re not allowed to have something they enjoy once and a while? I guess the only people who are supposed to enjoy life are those born with money? Please, oh and I love the talk about respect from pissant teatards who can’t respect the rest of us (the majority) or the president we (the majority) elected, you treasonous traitor scum,
Comments are closed.