Rick Scott might be the GOP nominee to become Florida's next governor, but you won't hear much from him. He has skipped out on scheduled debates, rarely gives interviews, and has taken the very unusual move of refusing to sit down with newspaper editorial boards.
Luckily, there are plenty of videos of Rick Scott, and many of them are just like his campaign: downright odd. Here are a few of the highlights.
5. Scott's Awkward Stand-in
4. Booting a Reporter From the Bus
When WPLG's Mike Putney asked Scott's mother a question at an event in July, his campaign told Putney that he couldn't use the clip. Putney rightly refused, so Scott's camp kicked him off the bus they were traveling on. (The only clip on the internet of the odd exchange is in this video prepared by the McCollum campaign, which includes a few other choice Scott moments.)
3. Heckler? What Heckler?
Scott held a news conference in West Palm Beach in early August to announce, well, nobody really paid attention to what he was talking about. Because speaking over him the whole time was a tea party activist, standing right next to Scott and repeatedly asking the same question. This happens regularly to politicians, who usually make a joke or ask nicely that questions be held until the end. Not Scott. He just kept reading from his prepared remarks, as if the guy weren't standing, literally, inches away. The meat of the heckling begins about two minutes in and heats up three minutes later, when the heckler refuses a cop's request to quit it.
2. Stay Away From My Private Matters
He might be running for governor based on his business background, but Scott won't release a deposition about problems at the company he cofounded. When reporters wouldn't let him back away from the issue at an August news conference, Scott snapped. "I'm not doing it," he concluded with a wave of his hand.
1. The Half-Assed Answer
Rick Scott the candidate hasn't taken as many calls as Rick Scott the anti-health-care reform crusader. Back when he was wearing that hat in 2009, Scott regularly appeared on national news shows, often being forced to defend his own record instead of attacking government health care. His answer to why his former company was hit with $1.7 billion in criminal and civil fines for Medicaid fraud is always based on half-truths. He told Rick Sanchez: "No one went to jail. I wasn't accused of anything." Not exactly the Mother Teresa defense.