DeSantis and Newsom trade jabs in one-on-one debate

ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom confronted each other on stage during the “Red vs. Blue State Debate” for the first time after multiple years of verbal jabs and and attacks.

Fox anchor Sean Hannity asked DeSantis at the beginning of the debate how California could be losing so many residents in favor of conservative states such as Florida.

“[Newsom] is the first governor to lose population. They actually, at one point, ran out of U-Hauls in the state of California because so many people were leaving,” DeSantis said.

“Of course he’s imposed restrictions on his own people, while exempting himself from those restrictions and going to the French Laundry, while his people were suffering,” he added.

“In Florida we showed that conservative principles work,” he said. “This country must choose freedom over failure.”

Newsom defended his record as governor of his west coast state, arguing that California has more people coming from Florida to his state than there were Californians coming to the Sunshine state.

“We dominate, number one manufacturing state,” Newsom said. “We dominate in two-way trade, in research and development, access to innovation, more scientists, more researchers, more engineers, more Nobel laureates in the state of California then any other state in the nation.”

On the topic of taxation, Newsom boasted that California had “significantly lower taxes than places like Texas.”

“I’m abasing regressive taxes that advantage millionaires and billionaires over working families,” he said.

“How does paying $7 per gallon of gas help working families?” DeSantis asked. “How does paying an 8% state sales tax help working people?”

“They have the highest taxes in the nation,” he added. “People flee to save money to get out of California and you have working class people that move to these other states, there dollars go much further.”

When talking about immigration, Newsom said there was only “one guy” he wouldn’t listen to more on the topic than DeSantis.

He also attacked DeSantis for “gamesmanship” when sending migrants to Martha’s Vineyard.

“I met with those migrants that you lied to under false pretense. That kind of gamesmanship, using human beings as pawns, I think is disqualifying,” he said.

DeSantis responded, saying how Newsom had just stated a “flurry of lies” on several talking points.

“This is a guy that says the Biden administration is not lying to the public about the border,” DeSantis said. “They go to the White House briefing room everyday, they say ‘the border is secure.’ They are lying to you.”

When attacked on the issue of California having high rates of violent crime, Newsom shot back, making the case that gun crimes and murder rates were worse in red states than they were in blue states like his.

“People are leaving California in droves, largely because public safety has collapsed,” DeSantis said in response. “When Californians come to Florida, one of the things they’ll say is it’s almost like an out-of-body experience.”

“They can go to the store, get toothpaste off the shelf, pay for it and leave. Because a lot of these places in California, everything’s under lock and key because they basically legalized retail theft,” he added.

DeSantis at one moment attacked Newsom for wanting to exclude certain athletes from Special Olympics over COVID-19 vaccines.

“You’re a liberal bully! You wanted them to be ostracized!” he said. “You should talk to Isabella from Florida. She got to participate because we stood up for her rights.”

“Your attacks on the trans community, your attack on the gay and lesbian community, you attack vulnerable communities, you attack women,” Newsom responded.

DeSantis said that on the topic of education and parental rights, the role of the school is to educate kids, not indoctrinate them.

“It’s also important to respect parental rights to know what curriculum is being used in the classroom everything should be age appropriate,” he said.

He also presented the book “Genderqueer” on the stage as an example of the material the state of Florida had removed from school shelves.

That being the case, Newsom argued that DeSantis removed over 1,000 books during his “banning binge” as governor. DeSantis said that books by Toni Morrison and Amanda Gorman are not banned when he was pressed on the issue by the California governor.

“We don’t provide for K-3rd grade education that kind of curriculum. That’s just made up,” Newsom said when DeSantis argued California was pushing inappropriate material in the state’s curriculum.

DeSantis said that he supports a “culture of life” when talking about abortion.

He also attacked late-term abortions and the Democrats’ perceived unwillingness to take strong stances on them.

“Ron DeSantis signed the most extreme anti-abortion bills in America,” Newsom said. “He signed a bill banning any exceptions for rape and incest and then he said it didn’t go far enough and decided to sign a six week ban before women even know they’re pregnant.”

Newsom argued that late-term abortions were extremely rare and that at the end of day, it’s up to a woman’s right to choose.

He also said that DeSantis would sign a six week national abortion ban even though the Florida governor did not specify what he would do on the issue if elected president.

The debate ended with the two having kind words to say about each other and the other’s home state.

The feud between the two state executives began during the coronavirus pandemic when they were each thrust into the national spotlight for their vastly differing approaches to lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccine requirements and other issues related to the disease.

Florida lifted all of its Coronavirus restrictions after only six months of mandated lockdowns, while California waited over a year to remove theirs.

Newsom formally challenged DeSantis to a one-on-one debate in September 2022. DeSantis responded, saying he was game.