Up front we want to give a special hat tip to our conservative friend Clare M Lopez, national security expert, and Founder/President of Lopez Liberty LLC, and to other friends from
around the country who wish to remain anonymous who offered commentary during the debate. Clare messaged us throughout the debate and helped us pull many of the following key points out of the dialog, helping us overcome the distraction of the raucous group of Floridians gathered with us to watch it. We couldn’t have done it without her help.
In a primary season where the Republican candidate “debates” have been utter failures in differentiating the candidates on matters of real substance, last night’s debate between conservative Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and Far Left Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom of California finally demonstrated why DeSantis tops the “not Trump” list of Republican candidates.
Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Vivek Ramaswami and all the others can talk, but last night DeSantis threw down the facts on why conservative Republican governance in Florida works better for the average American family, and Newsom was left with little with which to retort, save the usual Democrat claims that, in so many words, Republicans like DeSantis are mean.
Out of the box Newsom inadvertently gave voice to the “if it saves one life” propaganda Democrats use to justify all kinds of oppressive measures, such as their COVID lockdowns.
In response DeSantis deftly pointed out that Newsom locked down California schools during COVID which kept low-middle income kids out of school while Newsom had his kids in a private school that remained open.
And it went downhill from there as DeSantis steered the conversation back to the economy and the quality of life for working families.
Calling policy under the California Democrat “Biden-Harris agenda on steroids.”
“He’s the first governor to ever lose population,” DeSantis said. “They actually at one point, ran out of U-Hauls in the state of California, because so many people were leaving.”
“I’ll give Gavin credit — he did at least admit in his first answer, he’s joined at the hip with Biden and Harris. He thinks Biden and Harris have done a great job. He thinks the economy is working because of their policies for Americans, and they are not, and so what California represents is the Biden-Harris agenda on steroids,” DeSantis said.
And later in the debate Newsom said Biden will be the nominee because he’s ’doing fantastically.’
“They would love nothing more than to get four more years to be able to take the California model nationally — that would be disastrous for working people,” Governor DeSantis continued.
Hannity later pressed Newsom on not directly answering the question on migration out of California.
“You have yet to address the issue, but I asked you twice, you don’t want to answer it,” Hannity told Newsom.
When the debate shifted to the border and national security Newsom started trying to blame Republicans for the illegal immigration debacle - then attacking DeSantis for ‘lying’ and sending illegals to other states.
As our conservative friend Clare M Lopez, national security expert and Founder/President Lopez Liberty LLC observed, Newsom has no way to answer for the numbers coming across illegally, so he deflects and dodges the actual issues.
As Ms. Lopez noted, the numbers coming from countries of concern like Afghanistan and China are an ongoing threat. Newsom was not addressing the open southern border or the numbers of illegals or ‘clear and present danger’ they represent, and he cannot address this question at all because he knows the answer is ‘yes’, we’re under threat.
In response DeSantis cited Article II, Section 3 about President ‘shall ensure laws be faithfully executed’ as a major Biden failure and predicts terrorist attack coming in homeland because of open southern border.
As things started to get hotter between the two Governors Hannity was forced to say, “I don’t want to be the hall monitor.”
DeSantis also deftly flipped the script on Newsom when he tried to blame crime on gun owners, claiming DeSantis made it easier on felons because he backs concealed carry and gun ownership.
People are leaving California in droves because Newsom puts interests of criminals over law-abiding citizens, as Governor DeSantis noted, California is going easy on criminals while restricting citizens’ right to defend themselves.
DeSantis said Newsom’s ‘Ideological joy ride’ makes it necessary for women in California to take off their jewelry before going out in public. In contrast DeSantis removed two DA’s who were not doing their jobs on crime but Newsom leaves his soft on crime DA’s in place.
“We had two radical left Soros district attorneys like your buddy [Los Angeles District Attorney George] Gascón in LA, — one in Tampa one in Orlando. They were endangering the public, and I removed them from their posts,” DeSantis said.
“Gavin Newsom has not lifted a finger to rein in Gascón in LA. That city has collapsed,” Governor DeSantis added.
When the debate ventured into the “culture wars” issues Newsom went on the attack, but DeSantis did not back down.
Newsom hit DeSantis for signing a six-week abortion ban, reminding DeSantis that even former President Trump called it “too extreme.”
“I think this is important and it bears repeating: Ron DeSantis signed the most extreme, anti-abortion bills in America. 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, Ron. Before women can even access a doctor’s appointment,” Newsom said.
“So extreme is your ban that criminalizes women and criminalizes doctor that even Donald Trump said it was too extreme,” Newsom continued.
However, the California Governor refused to identify any restrictions on abortion he could support, even in months 7-8-9, instead of answering directly he attacked DeSantis for Florida’s law restricting late term abortions.
DeSantis’s response: “I believe in a culture of life,” and supported setting the abortion threshold in Florida to 6 weeks because that’s when the baby’s heartbeat can be detected.
DeSantis also stood firm when attacked on other “culture wars” issues, especially using schools to sexualize and indoctrinate children.
When Newsom attacked DeSantis claiming Florida is on a ‘book banning binge’ and that DeSantis ‘demeans’ gay, LGBTQ++ people DeSantis quickly shot back that Florida has parental rights and passed an Act restricting sexual content in early grades K-3. The ‘Role of schools is to educate children, not indoctrinate them,’ said DeSantis.
DeSantis also brought up the pornographic book ‘Gender Queer’ which is now not allowed in Florida schools but is allowed in California. Newsom refused to answer if such sexual content was appropriate – instead he called it a ‘culture war.’
DeSantis also scored Newsom on California allowing sex change hormones and surgery for children from other states without parental consent.
One of Clare Lopez’s best catches for us was to point out this ridiculous example of Newsom trying to gaslight the debate audience by saying the war Hamas started with Israel is a fight between good and evil and that HAMAS must be eliminated – only to pivot to, without evidence, attack DeSantis as antisemitic!
However, the outrageous and false claim of anti-Semitism didn’t throw DeSantis, who pointed out he was the Governor who sent planes to bring back stranded Americans from Israel while Newsom did nothing.
Editor’s Note: Rather than fly empty to Israel, the planes DeSantis also carried non-lethal aid.
We will let one of the DMs from Clare Lopez give the bottom line: Gov. DeSantis was impressive w/his command of data & facts about respective performances in the 2 states: CA & FL
Gov. Newsom was incapable of defending his deplorable record in CA & so repeatedly fell back on emotional, ideological attacks on Gov. DeSantis that mostly dodged the essence of questions about his record that Sean Hannity was actually asking.
*Charts from Stephen Moore's Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
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