Then he paused and said ‘by the way, I’m Gavin Newsom’s father-in-law.’ pic.twitter.com/OSsYCRTJYo
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 1, 2023"
Posted on 12/01/2023 6:03:30 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The Red State vs Blue State Debate on FNC Thursday night with Sean Hannity as moderator turned out to be an excellent event. I thought I would put down a few thoughts on the debate between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
I wrote about the debate on Thursday in anticipation of tuning in that night. I think most of the predictions I made turned out to be true. But, I did miss the mark when I said that Gavin Newsom is a smooth talker. He may be a smooth talker in television interviews and political speeches but during a debate, he comes off much differently. Newsom can’t answer a question. Maybe it was because of the material he was working with but wow, he was not smooth at all.
Newsom didn’t answer a single question. He took each question from Hannity and tossed it aside as he launched into an attack on DeSantis or Republicans in general. He changed the subject to deliver his talking points. I read that he was prepped for the debate by Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried, which was a major mistake. Fried lost to Charlie Crist in the Democrat primary during the last election. You know, the one when DeSantis won re-election by 20 points. Newsom was not smooth. He was full of snark and snide remarks that had little to do with the questions.
Most importantly, the debate was supposed to be on the contrast between a red state and a blue state. Hence the name of the debate. However, Newsom kept trying to focus on the alleged successes of Joe Biden. There is no way he could win the debate on the merits because California is a failing state and there isn’t anything for Newsom to brag about. So, he lied his way through the debate. I’ve never seen anything like it. He lied on every answer as he went between personal attacks and state management criticism against DeSantis. He went so far as to declare DeSantis should drop out of the primary and let Nikki Haley take on Trump.
“We have one thing in common: Neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024,” Mr. Newsom said early in the debate, only to follow later with a left hook about Mr. Trump’s polling lead in Florida. “How’s that going for you, Ron?” he taunted. “You’re down 41 points in your own state.”
It was at that point that Hannity reminded Newsom that the debate was not about the presidential campaign but about the contrast between the two states.
As I predicted, Trump and Haley’s supporters were out after DeSantis throughout the debate. Newsom used references to both Trump and Haley to ding DeSantis and his campaign. Newsom didn’t come to debate the issues of red states versus blue states but to try to derail the DeSantis campaign. He failed miserably. DeSantis was well-prepared and laid to rest the tropes of his poor debating skills. He mopped the floor with Newsom.
Newsom concentrated on deflecting questions on his leadership and the problems in California. He can’t defend the failures of his leadership so he continued to just make up points he thought would damage DeSantis. Hannity put up graphs and bar charts that compared Florida and California with Florida leading California. Newsom would ignore the numbers on the graphics and just make up his facts. He let the mask slip a bit when he said he couldn’t wait for PolitiFact to fact-check the claims during the debate. He knew the liberal organization would support him.
The alliance of Trump voters with Newsom was interesting. My X timeline was filled with snarky and premature declarations that DeSantis didn’t win the debate. It’s been a strange week for Trump. He received an endorsement from a co-founder of a BLM chapter. Trump bragged about the endorsement. Since when do Republican candidates brag about a BLM endorsement? Thursday night, Newsom name-dropped Trump several times, as though they were on the same team.
Both candidates spoke over each other and that was frustrating. An interesting thing happened during the debate. DeSantis kept pulling out visual aides. He brought a book that had been taken out of the classroom of little kids as an example of what not banning books looks like. The books were simply taken out of the classrooms of the little ones and moved to older students. The books didn’t go anywhere.
Newsom was there to spout talking points that put Biden in a good light. Newsom was auditioning to become Biden’s national spokesman. He would probably be a good surrogate for Biden. He lies well and is unabashed in doing so.
DeSantis delivered an outstanding performance. It was his best debate performance of the primary season. He mostly stuck to facts and told his story as a successful governor. He did have his moments, too. He told the story of meeting Newsom’s father-in-law which completely threw Newsom off. Newsom’s in-laws moved from California to Florida during the pandemic when Newsom had everything and everyone in isolation. Ouch.
I was talking to a fella who had made the move from California to Florida. He was telling me that Florida’s much better governed, safer, better budget, lower taxes.
Then he paused and said ‘by the way, I’m Gavin Newsom’s father-in-law.’ pic.twitter.com/OSsYCRTJYo
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 1, 2023
It set back Newsom and it was great.
DeSantis also brought the poop map of San Francisco to show the horrible conditions in the city due to the homeless problem. DeSantis noted that Newsom is the former mayor of San Francisco who promised to take care of the homeless problem and failed to do so.
Since Newsom didn’t have real facts to back up any of his claims, he just made things up as he went. He employed the use of righteous indignation when he could. Take for instance when he accused DeSantis of being disrespectful toward Kamala Harris by mispronouncing her name.
Here's that moment from the @RonDeSantis–@GavinNewsom debate when Newsom got really upset that, in his mind, DeSantis incorrectly pronounced Kamala Harris's name. pic.twitter.com/2jn59dh5ry
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 1, 2023
What malarkey.
DeSantis did well for himself. It was a bold move to do the debate but the risk turned into a victory. Newsom was no match to the facts DeSantis put out to counter Newsom’s alternative reality. Will it move the needle for DeSantis in the GOP primary? I guess we’ll find out. The debate reminded the viewers that this is the kind of election we could be having instead of the two candidates that a majority of voters do not want to face again.
I know one thing to be true after watching the debate – DeSantis is ready for primetime and Newsom is not.
Newsom Claim #1: “The last two years, more Floridians went to California than Californians going to Florida.”
This is a strategy designed to deflect criticism of California's oppressive policies against businesses as well as their recent draconian covid policies. The claim is utterly false. In 2021, 24,000 Floridians moved to California – while 37,000 Californians moved to Florida. In 2022, 29,000 Floridians moved to California while 51,000 Californians moved to Florida. Furthermore, California had an overall population loss of 800,000 people in only three years. Florida gained a massive 600,000 people in that same time period.
Keep in mind that thousands of small business owners and a number of major corporations have also left CA. Newsom has consistently and blatantly lied about his state's population exodus for a reason – It's embarrassing.
Newsom Claim #2: “Florida has more gun violence than California...”
This is based on per-capita data, a common method Newsom uses to obscure the massive crime in his own state. Multiple cities across the US are not reporting complete crime data to the federal government as they wait for the FBI to finish updating their statistical collection system by 2025. This means we can only compare data from 2021 or before.
That said, in 2021, CDC info shows that California had 3576 gun related deaths in 2021, while Florida had 3142 (many of the deaths are suicides or accidental). California had 2361 homicides that same year, while Florida had only 1462. And what about mass shootings? California is #3 on the list of states with the most mass shootings in 2023, with around 60% more incidents than Florida.
Per capita adjustments do not make California a safer state, and neither do stringent gun control laws, as the facts show.
Newsome Claim #3: “The working class pays lower taxes in California than Florida...”
False, and also a deflection to avoid the issue of cost of living. Florida is among the top ten states with the lowest income tax burden. California has the third-highest cost of living in the country, along with a higher tax burden. Surveys show that the average annual income needed to live comfortably in California is $80,000. In Florida, it is 57,000.
Newsom Claim #4: “Inflation down to 3.2%. Wages are up to 4.4%. The economy is booming. 5.2%. GDP growth in the last quarter...”
Another use of cherry-picked data to paint a false picture of the economy. CPI is not an indicator of overall inflation, it is merely a window in time showing where inflation growth is at for the month. Since Joe Biden entered the White House prices on the majority of goods and services have risen by 25%-30% on average. A falling CPI does not change this in the slightest. Americans will likely be paying 30% more for the cost of living for many years to come.
Over 60% of US workers say that their wages are lagging well behind inflation, even those that received a pay increase this year. Biden is overseeing the worst stagflationary crisis in America in over 40 years.
GDP growth numbers include government spending in their calculations, meaning they are fraudulent. States like California and the federal government learned a long time ago that they can boost their GDP stats by borrowing and spending more each year. These numbers do not represent the true health of the US economy in any way. Which is why California is able to brag about having the highest GDP in the country yet it also has one of the worst homeless epidemics in the country.
Newsom Claim #5: “14 million jobs created under Joe Biden, that’s 10 times more than the previous 3 GOP presidents combined...”
False, and this lie is getting old. The vast majority of the jobs cited by Newsom were not created by Biden, they were jobs lost during the covid lockdowns which Biden and Newsom aggressively pushed and tried to prolong for years. When the Democrats were forced to end the lockdowns, many of these jobs returned.
Also, the surge in consumer buying created by over $8 trillion+ in covid money dumped into the economy created a short term employment frenzy, which is now starting to fade. The stimulus bought Biden a few years, but will it last until the end of 2024?
Newsom Claim #6: “1406 books banned by Florida so far...”
Incorrect. No books have been “banned” by DeSantis and the State of Florida. Some books have been removed from public schools, either for pornographic content or for propaganda content with no educational value. The real question is, why does Newsom defend the exposure of young children to the pornography in these books, which are often easily found in California schools? If it's related to LGBT issues does that make it okay in his mind?
Newsom's strength is his ability to lie with a smile on his face, and this says a lot about him as well as the people who support him. America is suffocating under the weight of spin doctors, we don't need yet another.
Very good summary. My biggest complaint was Newsom kept talking over DeSantis. I was surprised that Hannity mostly kept his mouth shut, which is definitely out of character for him. DeSantis did have his best debate night, he shined.
ping for later
It seems Newsom’s job was to gaslight us that everything is great under Dear Leader Biden. We’re just to stupid to realize how great this economy is. Gaslight Gavin.
A lot of people actually like slick. Those that do will not like DeSantis. He is not slick.
Newsome is slick; and will likely get even slicker, sicker, and slimier.
Then he paused and said ‘by the way, I’m Gavin Newsom’s father-in-law.’ pic.twitter.com/OSsYCRTJYo
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 1, 2023"
Trump won. Trump wins.
The real bottom line is: how many eyeballs watched this faux news made for tv event
You didn’t watch it. You should watch it. Gavin was slick in a wannabe creepy way. He is in no way even a close approximation of BJ Clinton, who was a natural born slickster and could charm anyone.
“You didn’t watch it. You should watch it. Gavin was slick in a wannabe creepy way. He is in no way even a close approximation of BJ Clinton, who was a natural born slickster and could charm anyone.”
Very true, BJ perfected sleaze to an art form.
Over 5.5 million viewers. Double of Trump’s most recent made for TV “faux new” Town Hall event.
i’m glad but by no means surprised in any way Gov. Ron did well. at the very least, i’ve always considered him our conservative insurance policy in case Trump is removed by one of the many ongoing attacks from the leftist enemy.
even more importantly, i’m glad that he took down the dem party heir apparent. i’m amazed this even happened, but just this debate vs. noisome alone was worth Ron getting into the race against Trump. even though i’ve not been a fan of Hannity for along time, he showed here how and why dem journolists should never be allowed to moderate. he did a good job.
no secret here on FR, i left Trump and supported Ron since 2021 for the continuing actions he’s taking to secure FL politically, electorally, for his basic decency (Disney), competence (the jab), and judgment. all of that came through in the debate for once, thank God.
Bjc never charmed or any of my friends or sisters. We all agreed that he was most akin to a loser first husband or bad mistake boyfriend when we were young and foolish. I thought him quite repellant from the very beginning, his wife slightly less so. The only thing that has changed about this first impression, is that I now think Hillary is equally revolting.
I watched some of it; the last 30-40 minutes.
Newsom is slick. I'm guessing that females who buy those talked-about Shades-of-Gray porn books would probably vote for Newsom.
Newsom would offend any intelligent, grownup man or woman.
I did not waste my time last night watching this (as it turned out) sorry spectacle.
Don’t get me wrong — I like my Governor, and knew that he would take Grusom Nusom to the cleaners!
Grusom Nusom is a LIEberal!
LIEberals LIE!
Grusom Nusom LIEs!
Why would I waste my time watching him LIE and talk over my Governor?
Instead, DW and I watched an Inspector Lewis episode. Far better use of our time!
Let’s hope this time.
Let me be the first to claim viewer fraud. It’s time to march on the Nielsen Media Research Headquarters.
“The real bottom line is: how many eyeballs watched this faux news made for tv event”
exactly ... not me, but i figured it was pretty much nothing more than two Sideshow Bobs “debating” each other anyway ...
Governor Ron DeSantis was prepared, well-spoken, presidential, and would not be drawn down to Mister Newsom's level. A person to trust as a President.
Mister Newsom was rude, evasive, mendacious, rude, childish, snarky, rude, and came across as the ShamWow salesman of the Democrat party. No one would invite such a person into their home.
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