It was the kind of robust query a Republican presidential candidate may get on a Sunday morning speak present, solely the individual asking it was 15: Quinn Mitchell wished to know if Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida believed that former President Donald J. Trump had violated the peaceable switch of energy on Jan. 6, 2021.
Video of the uncomfortable exchange at a June 27 city corridor in Hollis, N.H., for Mr. DeSantis, who dodged the query, ricocheted on-line. So did the pair’s subsequent encounter at a July 4 parade in Merrimack, N.H., the place a video confirmed Quinn, an aspiring journalist, being shooed away by a handler for the Florida governor.
However the teenager stated he was not ready for what occurred on Friday, when he was briefly ejected by law enforcement officials from the First within the Nation Management Summit, a candidate showcase organized by the New Hampshire Republican Get together. The 2-day occasion in Nashua, N.H., featured Mr. DeSantis and a lot of the G.O.P. area, however not Mr. Trump.
“They stated, ‘We all know who you’re,’” Quinn, who has his personal political weblog and podcast, stated in a telephone interview on Saturday from his residence in Walpole, N.H., referring to the organizers of the summit.
Quinn, who obtained a visitor credential for the summit from the state’s G.O.P., stated an individual related to the occasion had instructed him that he had a historical past of being disruptive and had accused him of being a tracker, a kind of political operative who information rival candidates.
The subsequent factor he knew, Quinn stated, he was being led to a non-public room and was then ushered out of the Sheraton Nashua resort by native law enforcement officials. His ejection was first reported by The Boston Globe.
Jimmy Thompson, a spokesman for the New Hampshire Republican Get together, stated in a textual content message on Saturday that the teenager’s removing had been a mistake.
“In the course of the course of the two-day occasion, an overzealous volunteer mistakenly made the choice to have Quinn faraway from the occasion, pondering he was a Democrat tracker,” Mr. Thompson wrote. “As soon as the incident got here to our workers’s consideration, NHGOP let him again into the occasion, the place he was free to get pleasure from the remainder of the summit.”
In an electronic mail on Sunday morning, Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for the DeSantis marketing campaign, wrote, “We weren’t concerned in that call.”
A public info officer for the Nashua Police Division additionally didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Saturday.
In response to his website, Quinn has attended greater than 80 presidential marketing campaign occasions since he was 10, benefiting from New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation standing within the nominating course of to pose inquiries to candidates.
He stated he wished to listen to former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey communicate on Friday, together with the businessman Perry Johnson, a long-shot candidate.
At a city corridor that includes Mr. Christie in April, Quinn had asked another pointed question: Would Hillary Clinton have been higher than Mr. Trump as president?
Mr. Christie, the previous president’s loudest critic within the G.O.P. area, answered that he nonetheless would have chosen Mr. Trump within the 2016 election, describing the competition as “the largest hold-your-nose-and-vote alternative” the American individuals ever had.
About two months later, it was Mr. DeSantis’s flip to area a query from Quinn, this one about Mr. Trump’s actions on Jan. 6.
“Are you in highschool? stated Mr. DeSantis, who has confronted criticism as a candidate for not being fluid when interacting with voters and journalists, a dynamic that has made for some awkward exchanges on the marketing campaign path.
The Florida governor pivoted, arguing that if the 2024 election targeted on “relitigating issues that occurred two, three years in the past, we’re going to lose.”
Quinn stated that it didn’t appear to be a coincidence that he was kicked out of the occasion on Friday earlier than Mr. DeSantis’s remarks, which he had deliberate to skip.
“They know the story between me and DeSantis,” he stated.
By the point he was allowed to return to the occasion, Quinn stated he was in a position to catch Mr. DeSantis’s remarks. However when the governor opened it up for a query, Quinn left.
“OK, one fast query, what do you bought?” Mr. DeSantis requested an viewers member.
Nicholas Nehamas contributed reporting.
