California Governor Gavin Newsom roasted Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis during opening remarks in their Fox News debate on Thursday, declaring that “neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.”
Following DeSantis’ comments, which took aim at Newsom’s Covid-19 record and California’s population exodus, Newsom responded:
I’ll tell you why I’m here. I’m here to tell the truth about the Biden-Harris record, and also compare and contrast Ron DeSantis’ record and the Republican Party’s record as a point of contrast that’s as different as daylight and darkness.
You want to bring us back to a pre-1960s world. America in reverse. You want to roll back hard-earned national rights, on voting rights, on civil rights, on 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, Ron, are on a banning binge, a cultural purge, intimidating and humiliating people you disagree with. You and President Trump are really trying to light democracy on fire.
He concluded, “So Sean, there are profound differences tonight, and I look forward to engaging them, but there’s one thing, in closing, that we have in common, is neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.”
While some have speculated that Newsom could challenge President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination, Newsom has shot down such speculation and endorsed Biden’s re-election campaign.
DeSantis, meanwhile, has continued to slip in the polls since the launch of his Republican presidential campaign in May, and is now almost neck and neck with Nikki Haley for second place — nearly 50 points behind former President Donald Trump, the overwhelming frontrunner, according to RealClearPolitics’ polling average.
