An irate Democrat yelled at Rep. Patrick Murphy (D., Fla.) at a South Florida speaking event last week for not debating primary opponent Rep. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.), and Murphy awkwardly left the room moments later after failing to appease him.
Murphy has already announced he won’t debate Grayson ahead of their primary election due to charges of domestic abuse from Grayson’s ex-wife. The winner will likely face Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), who is seeking reelection but is facing a primary challenge of his own.
Murphy took questions from the Plantation Democratic Club in Broward County, Florida, but the event went off the rails at the end.
"I’ve got some bad news for you, Congressman Murphy," the man said. "You are not running against Mario [sic] Rubio. You are running against Alan Grayson, and since you never mentioned his name once, I was wondering what are you afraid of? Why won’t you debate him? Why won’t you take questions about your campaign? Thank you."
Murphy said he does not like to try to smear his opponent’s record, but he began to do just that a moment later, setting the questioner off.
"There’s plenty to learn about Congressman Grayson. If you’d like to look at the ethics investigation, a 1,000-page report—" he said.
"Smear!" the man said.
Murphy, looking unnerved, said, "I’m not going to bad-talk my opponent."
"You’re smearing!" the man yelled. "As a child of divorce, you have the nerve to talk about his divorce! Answer my question."
The man, wearing a T-shirt and hat in support of Tim Canova, the Democratic primary opponent of embattled Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), was approached by who appeared to be the event organizer in an attempt to calm him down, telling him to not act like a child.
Murphy then ended his appearance, and the angry Democrat tried to follow after him before being blocked. He was told to stop yelling and was finally escorted out of the meeting when he would not keep quiet.
"This meeting is bullshit!" he yelled on the way out.