If there were any winners in tonight’s Fox News debate between California’s Gavin Newsom and Florida’s Ron DeSantis, it was Joe Biden, Donald Trump and the Walt Disney Company. If there were losers, it seemed to be the governor of the Sunshine State himself, Civility and Sean Hannity.
Live from Alpharetta, Georgia, public, free Great debate between red and blue states saw how the incumbent POTUS continues to receive great support and backing from his ambitious political adopted son. Across the hall, the event hosted by Hannity left first Famous student The moderator actually looks like a heavyweight compared to the shrill DeSantis.
A far cry from the camaraderie of Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman’s VP debate in 2000, nor from the verbal and philosophical sabers of the dramatic city meetings of the world Between the then California governor Ronald Reagan and sen. Robert F. Kennedy via satellite in 1967, this shouting match was completely reminiscent, in all the wrong ways, of Biden and Trump’s first debate in 2020.
The difference, of course, is that Ron DeSantis is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, and Gavin Newsom, who The Great Communicator quoted tonight in criticizing Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, is running for nothing in 2024 – as he promised tonight under pressure from Hannity and his fellow governor.
That means Newsom had nothing to lose in the short term by playing the Fox Hole.
Saying “Ron, relax” and calling DeSantis “nothing but a bully,” Newsom had the best two lines of the night. On the other hand, DeSantis lost almost everything he had in the tank to “screams of lies,” anti-Biden talking points and his staggering Covid-19 record in front of his hometown cable audience.
“I had Disney open during Covid and we made them a fortune and saved a lot of work,” DeSantis roared after the West Coast Democrat received the first of several criticisms of him over recent jurisdictional and legal battles with the Bob Iger -led House of Representatives. of the mouse. “They inexplicably shut down Disney for over a year. You were a lockout governor, you did your people a great disservice,” DeSantis added, literally repeating his own attempt to ease tensions between Newsom and then-Bob Chapek -company in 2020 over the Disneyland closures, but attempts to inflate have failed.
The long-awaited dogfight between Newsom and DeSantis ended up being a missed opportunity as they trolled each other for months, trashing each other’s states, leadership and dreams in the Oval Office.
In fact, the debate failed among the participants themselves because it did not live up to its own fair and balanced hype. From the start, it appeared to be just another FNC-GOP debate with only one Republican on stage. With a glance and a redirection of ambition, one could see FNC’s Hannpalooza as a sneaky audition for The Daily Show Co-hosted gigs for the later governors if Newsom wasn’t so dominant.
The debate was certainly not the crowning glory planned for the moderator, who spent most of the ninety-minute long debate well outside his comfort zone.
Always a ploy to get Trump’s best friend, an experienced journalist, on the air Great debate between red and blue states starting with the self-proclaimed “conservative” Hannity who declared: “I’m going to moderate this debate, I’m not going to be part of the debate.” Unfortunately for Hannity, that proved very true within minutes, as the Fox host lost control of the proceedings as the two governors attacked each other without much regard for the moderator or the rules of engagement.
Put it this way: You know you have a problem when you have to declare in the first half hour, as Hannity did, “I want this debate to breathe … I don’t want to be a floor monitor.” A plea, that he had to bring it up twice. Even before that, Switzerland’s moderator position disappeared pretty quickly, with the first trio of questions being standard Fox-GOP Golden State debates.
When Hannity insisted toward the end of the debate that he was “not a potted plant,” all anyone wanted to do was tell the prime-time host to stick to his job.
Problems aside, the lack of an audience was a distinct advantage of this debate. The participants on stage may not have had much to say to each other, but the lack of constant interruptions and partisan applause and groans from the audience was a welcome relief and a blueprint for the future.
DeSantis branded Newsom as smart and willing to tell “a blizzard of lies,” while an easy-going Newsom played it cool with some Obama flair around Clinton in 1992, who outlasted the Florida governor. Newsom’s accusation that DeSantis was “taking America the other way” and trying to get Trump out of the way by sending migrants from non-border Florida to Martha’s Vineyard and Sacramento left political blood on the red carpet.
“By the way, how are you, Ron?” Newsom then mocked DeSantis. “You’re 41 points behind your home state,” he added in a yet-to-be-filed Trump campaign statement.
“As he continues to talk about me, I will talk to the American people,” Newsom said earlier, adding to a wide-eyed DeSantis, “while you stand there laughing and grinning.” DeSantis claimed that West Coast Democrats were on an “ideological joyride” when it came to crime, and to shame Newsom over his pandemic laundry scandal in France, DeSantis repeatedly deftly appealed to Fox viewers — despite all the good that he was told. who brought
Newsom’s quoting of Trump’s pro-China “Red Ron” whip at DeSantis struck a chord with those viewers today and likely did more damage to the Florida governor than anything else.
Long ago, when DeSantis looked like a viable candidate for the Republican nomination against Donald Trump, tonight’s already widely watched debate was treated to full Fox hype on Thursday. The five Today began with Dana Perino subdued compared to many of her teammates, calling the game “the red-blue showdown we’ve all been waiting for.”
Jesse Watters clearly had a sip of Kool-Aid, but Bill O’Reilly’s protégé actually had a surprisingly deft take on the governor of California’s interests tonight. “Newsom has to be good, but he can’t be too good,” Watters told Perino. “What I’m saying is that Newson needs to be good, so he needs to act as a backup in case something happens to Joe, especially in 2020. But if he’s too good, Dana, then you go.” Donors and pundits start calling him out and telling Joe Biden to drop the campaign and it will start a war. And I don’t think the Democratic Party wants that.”
On a day when Biden’s natural and constitutional heir, Vice President Kamala Harris, was widely criticized for her on-stage interview Wednesday New York Times The Dealbook summit and US officials tried to persuade Israel and Hamas to extend their temporary ceasefire in Gaza. the world. Partly in that spirit, the debate between Newsom and DeSantis also takes place just over two weeks in a federal court in the Sunshine State, which is scheduled to hold a hearing on the Florida governor’s latest attempt to overturn Disney’s lawsuit of the First Amendment. .
The really big date on the calendar is, of course, January 15, the day of the Iowa caucuses.
DeSantis has been low in the New Hampshire primaries and others, as Newsom has repeatedly noted, and has gone all out in the Hawkeye State contest, hoping to do decent enough to make Trump’s move to the Republican nomination for a third time to slow down. This leap of faith seems even more unlikely after today’s actions.
Source: Deadline
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
