20th Century electronic device
Washington (CNN) -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott refused to go onstage for the first seven minutes of a debate Wednesday night, because his opponent had a fan.
No, not a rowdy supporter in the audience. An actual electric fan.
And on Thursday, Scott tried explain why his opponent needed a fan in the first place.
"I think he was sweating and he needed a fan. I'm surprised he didn't try to ask for dry ice," Scott said. That could have actually been a solution to the standoff that took up the first seven minutes of the debate because Scott's protest flamed over Crist's apparent disregard for a previous agreement that electronic devices would be banned from the stage
Scott's Democratic challenger, former Gov. Charlie Crist, had set up a small fan underneath his podium, apparently trying to keep himself from sweating under the Broward College stage's lights. Scott saw the fan, a prop that often accompanies Crist at public appearances, as a violation of the debate's rules and said he wouldn't participate.
The moderators tried to explain the disagreement while Republicans in the audience chided Crist for breaking rules -- at least as Scott saw them -- against props on stage.
"We have an extremely peculiar situation right now," moderator Elliott Rodriguez, a local news anchor, said as the broadcast started.
"Are we really going to debate a fan?" Crist said while standing alone on stage.
Several minutes later, Scott relented and joined the debate.
"That has to be the most unique beginning to any debate," Rodriguez said as Scott walked onto the stage.