Democratic candidate Charlie Crist, the former Florida governor hoping to unseat Scott in next month’s election, had a small electric fan placed under his lectern. This, Scott’s campaign claimed, violated the debate’s “no electronics” rule.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a an extremely peculiar situation right now,” debate moderator Elliot Rodriguez of CBS Miami told the crowd, as the camera panned to two empty lecterns onstage. Seconds later, Crist walked onstage, but Scott was absent.
“We have been told that Governor Scott will not be participating in this debate,” Rodriguez explained. “Governor Crist has asked to have a small fan placed underneath his podium. The rules of the debate that I was shown by the Scott campaign say that there should be no fan. Somehow there is a fan there, and for that reason, ladies and gentlemen, I am being told that Governor Scott will not join us for this debate.”
Members of the audience booed loudly.
“That’s the ultimate pleading of the Fifth I’ve ever heard in my life,” Crist said.
