Ron DeSantis hogged a bumper cars ride, then his campaign made it a bigger issue

Image via AP.

Ron DeSantis committed another unforced error in his quest for the White House, when his campaign over the weekend shut out the public or accepted exclusive use of a bumper cars ride at the Iowa State Fair.

It wasn’t a great look for someone trying to seem relatable in spite of a growing record of awkward interactions on the campaign trail.

Then his campaign exacerbated the misstep by lying about it.

DeSantis, his wife, Casey, and their three small children visited the Des Moines fair Saturday, joining several Republican pols from Iowa to drum up support for the Governor’s floundering run at the presidency.

He flipped burgers and pork chops alongside U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, rubbed elbows with fairgoers, won carnival game prizes and enjoyed a few rides. He also absorbed praise from supporters, heckles from protesters and taunts from the GOP front-runner, Donald Trump, who attended the fair too and paid for a cheeky banner flown overhead that read, “Be likeable, Ron.”

Trump’s banner mocking DeSantis flew overhead the whole time: pic.twitter.com/pzveDFtIpn

— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) August 12, 2023

Those interactions, as well as a nasty argument between officials of a PAC backing DeSantis and a Trump supporter at a nearby dive bar Thursday yielded early headlines. But the bumper cars faux pas might prove more enduring due to subsequent insistence by the DeSantis campaign that people disbelieve their eyes.

A video Team DeSantis posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, shows the Governor and his wife piloting a pair of bumper cars, each with one of their children as a passenger, and several empty vehicles parked around them.

Roughly a dozen onlookers can be seen standing outside the railing. Many have cameras and are recording the private bumper cars run. Others appear to be idling about while waiting a little longer for their turn.

Enjoying the bumper cars at the Iowa State Fair! 🚗 pic.twitter.com/Q6EUSFiI6y

— Team DeSantis (@TeamDeSantis) August 12, 2023

Another video posted to Forbes’ YouTube page also shows the entire rink empty except for the DeSantises and a fair staffer.

The jeers arrived not long after the videos and others hit the web.

“Always a great idea on a Saturday … to shut down a popular attraction so voters can watch you have a good time,” wrote Ron Filipkowski, a Sarasota-based lawyer and former Judicial Nominating Commission appointee of DeSantis’ who has since become one of the Governor’s most frequent critics.

Others suggested DeSantis missed a fundraising opportunity.

“I, personally, would have paid $100 to ram into him,” wrote Greer McVay.

Rather than ignore the criticism or offer a reasonable explanation for why the ride had been closed — for instance, to maintain security for a presidential candidate in a setting that invites physical contact — DeSantis’ team chose a less forthcoming tack.

“This is completely false,” wrote Bryan Griffin, DeSantis’ campaign Press Secretary. “The ride was open to anyone who wanted to join for that run.”

This is completely false. The ride was open to anyone who wanted to join for that run. https://t.co/hrxV3GNRMZ

— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) August 13, 2023

The videos tell another story and make it so one of two things is true: Either it is not “completely false” that the bumper cars were closed to others while DeSantis and his family used them, or none of the people waiting in line wanted to get on the ride when it was their turn because they collectively agreed the DeSantises should have it to themselves.

Which of those two rings truer?

Dan McLaughlin, a senior writer for the conservative National Review magazine, said he was “right there” at the bumper cars ride when the DeSantises used it alone. Roughly “10-15 people” were in line, he said, and there were “more people taking pictures of DeSantis … than people waiting for him to get off.”

“Basically, they just waited through one ride,” he wrote on X. “It’s not as if the Secret Service would have let Trump or (President Joe) Biden do it differently.”

Shut down? Packed? I was right there. There can't have been more than 10-15 people on line, if that. Basically they just waited through one ride. It's not as if the Secret Service would have let Trump or Biden do it differently. https://t.co/sg5aBnhYTC

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) August 13, 2023

True, but the point is that DeSantis’ campaign needlessly lied about something so easily refutable.

And it wasn’t the only time the Governor hogged a ride that day. A video Iowa Starting Line posted to X shows the DeSantis family and Ernst riding a Ferris wheel, which is also oddly empty of others.

Close to 118,300 people attended the Iowa State Fair on Saturday.

DeSantis, Ernst and family spinning around pic.twitter.com/ewU09j6YQ0

— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) August 12, 2023

Arguably the cringiest clip of a Republican candidate at the fair goes to entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy for his rendition of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” Ramaswamy, a self-professed “anti-woke” candidate who has called Juneteenth a “useless” holiday, gave up on the number less than halfway through its first chorus.

Vivek Ramaswamy is performing Lose Yourself at the Iowa State Fair: pic.twitter.com/mCEMIfijZM

— Dylan Wells (@dylanewells) August 12, 2023

Ramaswamy now leads DeSantis among likely GOP voters in a national survey by Kaplan Strategies. Both trail in distant second and third place, respectively, behind Trump.

Florida Politics contacted the Iowa State Fair for comment but received none by press time.