Written by by Evan Symon at californiaglobe.com
‘It isn’t a good look for Newsom’
More accounts of the November 30th debate between Governor Gavin Newsom and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continued to come out this week, including a definitive reason why the debate didn’t go on longer despite both Newsom and DeSantis agreeing to an extension to it during the broadcast.
The long awaited “Great Red vs. Blue State Debate”, held in Alpharetta, Georgia, had been one of the most awaited non-presidential debates in recent memory. With DeSantis currently a 2024 Republican presidential nominee hopeful, and both being all-but-certain 2028 hopefuls in their respective parties, the debate was widely seen as a preview of a possible 2028 Presidential election debate.
The debate was also heavily promoted as a blue state v. red state matchup, with host Sean Hannity asking questions on taxes, the economy, inflation, crime, homelessness, public education, technology, responses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and more. During the night, the Governors got super specific on some questions, with DeSantis notoriously pulling out an app showing where human feces is found in the state and Newsom pointing out that strict, anti-LGBT measures in Florida have led to the pull out of companies and developments in Florida. Other highlights included DeSantis pulling out a pornographic book allowed in California schools under Newsom’s watch, and Newsom proving DeSantis wrong on some of his COVID lockdown facts by showing how closely DeSantis had actually followed federal COVID guidelines initially.