US governors in a clinch - Insults, mockery and a card with excrement: This is how the TV duel between DeSantis and Newsom went
There were two participants who met in Alpharetta in the US state of Georgia on Friday night in front of the Fox News cameras for an argument with one goal: the White House. The starting position for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his Californian counterpart Gavin Newsom during their appearance in the Atlanta suburb, however, was very different.
DeSantis, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination next year, urgently needs new fuel for his badly stuttering pre-election campaign engine. He has slipped so far in the polls that rival Nikki Haley is now challenging him for second place behind Donald Trump, who is leading by a wide margin.
Newsom, on the other hand, is currently working on positioning himself as the top replacement for US President Joe Biden without saying so openly. Primarily for the 2028 election, but possibly also for next year, should the 81-year-old Biden figuratively but also literally falter too much and therefore not run after all.
Worlds collide with Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom
DeSantis and Newsom have long been at loggerheads from afar. Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, uncontrolled migration to the USA, civil rights and the abortion issue are topics on which the arch-conservative Floridian and the liberal Californian are worlds apart. In Georgia, the two sides have now come face to face for the first time. And things got heated there too.
Newsom set the tone of the debate in his opening statement: "We have one thing in common," he mocked his opponent, "neither of us will be our party's candidate in 2024." With this, the 56-year-old took a jab at DeSantis, who is trailing Trump in the primary with virtually no chance. At the same time, Newsom made it clear that he was not running a shadow campaign and was not secretly planning to run for the Democrats in next year's election, as some observers have rumored. Throughout the duel, he also defended Biden against attacks about his policies and his age.
Newsom was particularly emotional on some topics. For example, he sharply criticized DeSkantis for doing "nothing meaningful" on gun safety after the Parkland school massacre that left 17 people dead in 2018. In light of the 45-year-old's restrictive policies on LGBTQ+ rights and the banning of certain books from Florida's libraries, the Californian expressed his dismay and accused his opponent of using "education as a sword for your cultural cleansing". "I don't like the way you demean the LGBTQ community," Newsom said. "I don't like the way you demean people you disagree with. I find that offensive first and foremost."
DeSantis presents card with feces in San Francisco
DeSantis, on the other hand, attacked his Democratic opponent primarily on the topics of immigration, the healthcare system and crime. Newsom's "left-wing politics" had harmed Californian cities such as San Francisco. He also referred to the high gasoline and sales tax rates in California. "This is a slick, slippery politician whose state is failing," he berated Newsom.
To back up his criticism, DeSantis even held up a printout and declared, "This is a map of San Francisco. You might wonder what's marked on it. Well, this is an app that shows the human feces that you find on the streets of San Francisco." The map, which Newsom acknowledged with a laugh, comes from OpenTheBooks.com and shows the reported findings of human feces in San Francisco from 2011 to 2019.
Throughout the event, President Biden's campaign team sent out video clips of Newsom's appearance. DeSantis' team also broadcast a steady stream of their own highlights, just like a traditional presidential debate. However, there was no real winner of the 90-minute duel, which was held without a live audience, judging by the reactions in the US media. Even though - how could it be otherwise - both opponents claimed victory afterwards.
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Source: www.stern.de
