Politics

DeSantis sweeps Newsom in the debate in Georgia: “Freedom is what works, the failures need to be left in the dustbin of history”

The governor of Florida stood out with several hard-hitting phrases, while the Democrat, despite some good moments, ended up exposed on several occasions by stating falsehoods or appearing incapable of answering the moderator's questions.

DeSantis, Newsom, debate, Georgia
DeSantis le muestra a Newsom un "mapa de heces humanas" que representan las calles de San Francisco. (Fox News)
EMMANUEL ALEJANDRO RONDóN
December 1, 2023
5 minutes read

The governors of Florida and California, Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom, faced each other in an extensive and heated debate organized by Fox News in Georgia.

The Republican and the Democrat exchanged blows throughout the night, debating controversial topics, such as abortion, the economy, President Joe Biden’s management, the border crisis, security problems, the difficult situation in California and the controversial educational policies promoted by democratic wokeism.

While Newsom had several memorable moments throughout the night, such as when he reminded DeSantis that he was far behind Trump in the polls, the governor of Florida finished the debate with more powerful phrases and moments during the debate exposing the failed social, economic and security policies in the Golden State.

DeSantis' best moments

DeSantis had his best night in months despite being in the middle of a presidential campaign that is not currently going well.

The Republican said some powerful phrases highlighting his positive management in Florida and reminding the audience that many Californians, due to the varied crises in the state led by Newsom, chose to move to Florida to improve their quality of life.

“When Californians come to Florida, 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,” DeSantis said during the debate while touching on insecurity issues in California.

“In a lot of these places in California, everything is under lock and key because they’ve basically legalized retail theft. They have chosen, in California, to put the interests of criminals over public safety,” he added.

The Republican governor, who throughout the night highlighted how Florida became the state that receives the most Californians, also threw a strong barb at Newsom, recalling that even the Democrat’s father-in-law has moved to the Sunshine State.

“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,’” DeSantis joked in one of the most epic moments of the night.

The issue of Californians migrating to other states did not go over well with Newsom, who at one point claimed, without evidence, that more Floridians were moving to California than vice versa.

However, census figures show that many more Californians have moved to Florida in the last two years.

Newsom, in fact, had a long list of unsubstantiated claims that earned him several negative fact checks. For example, he falsely claimed that his handling of COVID-19 in California was better than DeSantis’ in Florida, arguing that there were fewer deaths from the disease in California. In the live debate, Fox News showed a screen with data that showed the opposite.

Another negative moment for Newsom was when he accused DeSantis of “banning” books in Florida and carrying out a kind of “cultural purge,” a product of the Florida law that prohibits inappropriate sexual and ideological content in schools.

“You want to roll back hard-earned national rights on voting rights, on civil rights, and LGBTQ rights, on women’s rights, not just access to abortion, but also access to contraception. You want to weaponize grievance, you are focusing on false separateness. You in particular run on a banning binge, a cultural purge, intimidating and humiliating people,” Newsom said.

DeSantis took advantage and had another of his great moments during the debate: showing a page from a children’s book banned in Florida for its inappropriate sexual content live on TV.

“So this is a book that’s in some of the schools in California. [In} Florida, this is not consistent with our standards, called 'Gender queer.' It’s some of it’s blacked out. You would not probably be able to put this on air. This is pornography. It’s cartoons. It’s aimed at children, and it’s wrong. So this should not be in schools, when people like on the left say that you’re somehow banning books by removing this from a young kid’s classroom; no, this is not age-appropriate,” DeSantis said.

In addition to his explosive rhetoric, the governor of Florida also used many illustrative resources during the debate. A viral moment happened when he showed a map of “human feces,” explaining that this is what the streets of San Francisco look like as a result of the homelessness crisis in California.

During this intervention, the Republican also criticized Governor Newsom for cleaning the streets of San Francisco in advance of the visit of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.

Later, with the debate already advanced, DeSantis himself brought the issue of dirt on the Californian streets back to the stage, but this time to whitewash a point made by Newsom.

The governor of California tried to argue that the Golden State remains the state of civil liberties in the United States, however, DeSantis had an incendiary response.

“California does have freedoms that other states don’t. You have the freedom to defecate in public. You have the freedom to pitch a tent on Sunset Boulevard. You have the freedom to create a homeless camp and even light it on fire. You have the freedom to have an open air drug market and use drugs. You have the freedom if you’re an illegal alien to get these taxpayer benefits. So those are freedoms—they’re not freedoms our founding fathers envisioned but they have contributed to the destruction of the quality of life in California. People are leaving the state because they have failed to addressing the homeless population.”

Finally, DeSantis chose to question Newsom and the Biden-Harris Administration and the “California model,” which, according to the governor, Democrats want to implement at the federal level.

“Biden would look to California for the model to go forward in the next four years. That would accelerate the decline of this country. Freedom is what works. The failures need to be left in the dustbin of history,” stated the Republican.

Newsom also landed a few hits in the debate

Although the Democrat was cornered on several occasions by DeSantis and by the stymying interrogation of Fox News host Sean Hannity, Newsom managed to land several blows against the Republican throughout the night, especially by exploiting the problems that DeSantis’ presidential campaign is experiencing.

“You’re trolling folks and trying to find migrants to play political games, to try to get some news and attention, so you can out-trump Trump. And by the way, how’s that going for you, Ron? You’re down 41 points in your own home state,” was one of Newsom’s best lines from the debate.

Another cutting moment for Newsom came when he addressed the second-place competition in the Republican Party primaries, which has DeSantis and candidate Nikki Haley fighting from far behind. Directly, the Democratic governor asked the Republican: “When are you going to drop out and at least give Nikki Haley a shot to take down Donald Trump?”

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