World enews: Ron DeSantis faces ‘pudding fingers’ chant and other protests during Iowa campaign stop

A group of women tailed Ron DeSantis to several campaign events this past week, causing disruptions and distractions as the second-place Republican candidate seeks to pick up traction in the early caucus state.

The group, B****es Get Stuff Done, showed up to at least two of the Florida governor’s events where they deployed various tactics aimed at preventing him from speaking to Republican primary voters. A website for the group states that its members are progressive Democratic women who, apparently in addition to trolling Republicans, provide resources to Democratic candidates.

Among the activists from the group who participated in the demonstrations this week was the group’s founder and CEO, Heather Ryan.

Chants of “pudding fingers” erupted at one DeSantis campaign event where Ms Ryan and another member of the group arrived with megaphones.

At one point at the same event, a DeSantis supporter can be seen attempting to snatch a megaphone out of Heather’s hands.

The governor addressed the women briefly as they carried on, but according to Politico the event (a discussion with military veterans) seemed hurried along as the protesters attempted to drown him out.

“People like that are what’s holding this country back,” Mr DeSantis said at one point, according to Politico.

At an event held at the week-long phenomenon that is the Iowa State Fair, the Florida governor found himself met by the women once more. There, he was joined by Iowa’s Governor Kim Reynolds onstage only to be drowned out by members of the group who blew whistles over the two Republicans as they spoke. Overhead, a chartered prop plane flew a banner urging the candidate to be “likable”.

Mr DeSantis has put much of his campaign’s focus into the state of Iowa, where he hopes for an upset victory over Donald Trump. The former president’s campaign has been combatting that effort with mockery and derision, even though Mr Trump himself lost the Iowa caucuses in 2016 to Ted Cruz.

The Florida governor has formed a close alliance with Ms Reynolds, Iowa’s popular GOP executive, but in polling has continued to trail Mr Trump by significant margins even as other Republicans close in on him from lower down in the standings.