As California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis opened a debate Thursday night on Fox News, Newsom told DeSantis the two had one thing in common.
“Neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024,” he said.
The highly unusual debate — one moderated by Fox’s conservative host Sean Hannity and billed by the network as the “Great Red State vs. Blue State Debate” — was a window into an alternative political universe; one in which President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump were not on course for a 2024 rematch of the 2020 presidential race.
The odds were stacked against Newsom, the Democrat who faced both a Republican sparring partner and questions posed from conservative angles as he sought to play surrogate for Biden’s reelection effort.
But the stakes were much higher for DeSantis, whose flagging bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination is in desperate need of a jolt with the Iowa caucuses less than seven weeks away.
Here are six takeaways from what Hannity and Fox News billed as the “Great Red State vs. Blue State Debate”:
DeSantis opened the debate by asserting that Newsom was seeking the national limelight as part of a shadow 2024 presidential run, built on the belief that the 81-year-old Biden won’t ultimately seek a second term.
“Why don’t you just admit it? You’re running,” DeSantis said.
But Newsom went to bat for Biden, defending the president’s record on the economy, immigration and more in front of Fox’s right-leaning audience.
“Fourteen million jobs, 10 times more than the last three Republican presidents combined,” Newsom said as he began to reel off a list of economic achievements after DeSantis called him a defender of “Bidenomics.”
DeSantis lambasted Biden’s handling of the US-Mexico border….
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