Jacksonville, Florida - Florida Governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis got into a spat with a man that blamed his policies and rhetoric for a recent racially motivated shooting in his state.

Viral video has continued to circulate of an incident where Ron DeSantis shot down a critic who stood up to him.

DeSantis held a news conference on Thursday to discuss Florida's opposition to Covid-related mandates.

During the Q&A portion of the event, DeSantis took a question from a Black man in the back of the room, who criticized DeSantis' recent open carry gun policies for allowing "immature people" to be armed in public. He argued the policies "caused the deaths of the people who were murdered a couple weeks ago."

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The man was referencing a recent shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, where a gunman targeted a Black community and murdered three people.

DeSantis quickly interrupted the man, stating, "I'm not going to let you accuse me of committing criminal activity. I am not going to take that."

The man attempted to argue that DeSantis' policies "have allowed people to hunt people like me," but DeSantis steamrolled him from speaking, insisting his views were "nonsense."

The notably majority white crowd began to cheer for DeSantis' response, drowning out the man from finishing his question. He was ultimately escorted out of the room by several members of the audience.

DeSantis continued to defend himself as the man left, adding, "The notion that we're not supportive of safety is absurd."

Ron DeSantis has made himself a lightning rod when it comes to culture wars in the US, regularly implementing policies in his state that fight back against what he believes to be "woke" ideologies, most notably the issue of how sex, gender, and Black history are taught in schools.

He has also pushed himself as an advocate for free speech and a vocal opponent to cancel culture. Immediately after he announced his bid for president back in May, he held a launch event with X CEO Elon Musk, where he accused tech companies like Google of "censoring" dissenting views and opinions.

Many of his policies have not been popular with Black and minority voters across the nation. Some critics argue that DeSantis, even as a self-proclaimed bastion of free speech, actively censored the man at the Thursday event from even finishing his question.

DeSantis seems to believe that his points of view are unequivocally correct, as he told the man during the exchange, "There is 'the truth'... it's not, 'Everyone has their own truth.'"