PALM COAST — After a couple of robustly attended protests outside one of his offices during the past few weeks, a local congressman met with a select group of people from outside the conservative bubble.

For 40 minutes Tuesday, which was twice as long as what was originally scheduled, Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Palm Coast, discussed the possibility of investigating President Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia with five local activists.

In the end, the only common ground the two sides reached, according to the activists, was that DeSantis wants the matter investigated. They couldn't agree on who should be doing it.

DeSantis said the investigations will be handled by congressional committees on which he doesn't sit. Those constituents who met with him said there needs to be an independent commission looking into the matter.

Diana LeBrun, who is with Indivisible Flagler, was among the five activists who took part in the private meeting. She said DeSantis acted as though he was "receptive to finding out the truth" about the controversies surrounding former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired by Trump on Feb. 13 after he misled Vice President Mike Pence about talks he conducted with a Russian ambassador prior to Trump's inauguration.

As LeBrun spoke, the 20 or so activists who stood outside DeSantis' office building on Lupi Court holding signs, stood behind her and listened. As they listened to her, a few of them voiced their skepticism that the meeting was productive. They said they're not convinced DeSantis, who is a member of the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees, is taking the Russia matter seriously enough.

"The question is very simple. Are you going to bring it up in your committee?" said David Hendrickson to LeBrun. "He gave you the political answer, the noncommittal answer."

LeBrun said DeSantis told them that he agreed Trump should disclose his tax returns and said so publicly while Trump ran for president. However, DeSantis, pointed out that no laws mandate their release.

"We asked him to keep calling for those tax returns," LeBrun said.

Last week, DeSantis held a telephone town hall, but everyone who signed up to participate using a cellphone did not receive the call to join. Staffers said that was due to a mistake made by the company that was hired to conduct the town hall. The five who met with DeSantis didn't like the idea of him relying too much on telephone town halls and urged him to host an in-person town hall. He said he would try to have one sometime in March or April, said LeBrun.

A News-Journal reporter was not allowed to attend Tuesday's meeting because DeSantis wanted it only to be a meeting between him and his constituents. After the two sides met, the activists agreed to speak to the reporter for several minutes, but DeSantis and his staffers left the premises through a rear door before the reporter could get a comment from him.

Elizabeth Fusick, a DeSantis spokeswoman, released a statement to The News-Journal a few hours later.

"Congressman DeSantis met with several constituent groups today and (also) had the opportunity to visit the new outpatient clinic that will serve veterans in southwest Volusia," said Fusick. "Our office appreciates every opportunity to sit down one-on-one and listen to the concerns of our constituents."

Greg Spradlin, a member of Indivisible Daytona, said there was a significant divide between the congressman and those who met with him, particularly on the subject of the Russia inquiry.

When they suggested that a bipartisan congressional committee wasn't good enough because it tilted too heavily in favor of Republicans, DeSantis told them that's what happens when Republicans win elections.

"I almost expected him to say, 'Just get over it,'" Spradlin quipped. "I resisted telling him, 'Well, Hillary (Clinton) got almost 3 million more votes."

Nancy Wilks, who represents an Ormond Beach group calling itself Floridian Unity, also was part of the group that met with DeSantis. She said the congressman seemed to be "trying to make us all sound like Trump haters," when it fact they wanted more direct answers on how he would handle the Russia controversy, Trump's hidden tax returns and the future of the Affordable Care Act.

Both she and LeBrun took issue with an earlier News-Journal characterization of the Indivisible movement as "liberal." It's a group that includes several independents and "disenfranchised Republicans."

One of the sign-holders, Lynn Hendrickson, said she was a Republican for 44 years before moving to Florida, at which time she registered as an independent. Her husband is a longtime Democrat and the couple's marriage had a James Carville-Mary Matalin dynamic for years until Trump got elected. They have a lot more in common these days, she said.

One of the other sign-holders said she voted for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush for president in the past, but was vehemently opposed to Trump.

"We're not just a liberal, grassroots group," said LeBrun. "We simply oppose regressive policies."

DeSantis later Tuesday appeared on Fox News' "First 100 Days" show as part of a town hall in Ponte Vedra Beach, where he fielded questions about Democrats in Congress blocking Trump appointees and DeSantis' own bill to limit the number of terms Congress members may serve.