For an hour and a half on Thursday evening, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California shouted at and interrupted one another, attempting to go away an impression on Fox Information viewers past the din of their slugfest.
The controversy in Alpharetta, Ga., was an opportunity for Mr. DeSantis to carry the highlight with out different candidates for the Republican presidential nomination on the stage. It was an opportunity for Mr. Newsom to deliver his clean persona and fast wit to a nationwide — and conservative — viewers.
Listed below are 5 takeaways.
It was DeSantis and Hannity vs. Newsom and Biden.
The controversy’s moderator, Sean Hannity, wished the evening to be a showdown between the liberal governor of essentially the most populous state within the nation and the conservative governor of the third most populous state over starkly completely different views of governance.
From the start, Mr. Hannity pressed Mr. Newsom on his state’s excessive tax charges, its lack of residents over the previous two years and its comparatively increased crime charge. And Mr. DeSantis backed up the moderator in his challenges to how California is run.
It was an odd, mismatched dialog, since Mr. Newsom, who is just not operating for president, tried arduous to deal with the 2024 marketing campaign by which Mr. DeSantis is at the moment operating. Mr. Newsom talked up President Biden’s document on the financial system, well being care and immigration and took swipes at Mr. DeSantis’s flagging marketing campaign within the face of former President Donald J. Trump’s dominance.
“We’ve one factor in widespread: Neither of us would be the nominee for our social gathering in 2024,” Mr. Newsom mentioned early within the debate, solely to comply with later with a left hook about Mr. Trump’s polling lead in Florida. “How’s that going for you, Ron?” he taunted. “You’re down 41 factors in your personal state.”
An exasperated Mr. Hannity requested Mr. Newsom at one level: “Is Joe Biden paying you tonight? I believed this was state versus state.”
DeSantis was far feistier than within the Republican debates.
Via three Republican main debates, Mr. DeSantis has struggled to make an impression on a crowded stage with a number of deft campaigners. On Thursday evening, a distinct Mr. DeSantis was onstage.
He saved Mr. Newsom on his heels for a lot of the evening. With Mr. Hannity’s assist, he hit Mr. Newsom on topic after topic: crime, immigration, taxes, schooling.
And he appeared ready. When Mr. Newsom predictably introduced up Mr. DeSantis’s fruitless battle with Disney, the Florida governor didn’t defend his actions however went after his California counterpart over his Covid insurance policies: “You had Disney closed inexplicably for greater than a yr,” he mentioned.
Newsom was decided to take down DeSantis’s 2024 marketing campaign.
If Mr. DeSantis wished to take the sheen off the Golden State, Mr. Newsom appeared decided to bury Mr. DeSantis’s White Home aspirations. The Californian was definitive in dismissing hypothesis that he was operating for president, and was simply as definitive in saying the Floridian was going nowhere.
“Joe Biden can be our nominee in a matter of weeks,” Mr. Newsom mentioned earlier than including of Mr. DeSantis, “In a matter of weeks, he can be endorsing Donald Trump.”
It was not a one-off jab. Mr. Newsom informed his onstage rival that “Donald Trump laid you out” on Florida’s preliminary Covid restrictions. He accused Mr. DeSantis of caving to the far proper in lifting the restrictions and permitting tens of 1000’s of Floridians to die.
Mr. Newsom invoked Nikki Haley, the previous South Carolina governor and considered one of Mr. DeSantis’s opponents for the Republican nomination, when he mentioned the Florida governor opposed fracking.
“You have been celebrated by the Sierra Membership for that motion till you weren’t,” he mentioned.
To conclude the talk, Newsom caught within the knife: “When are you going to drop out and provides Nikki Haley an opportunity to tackle Donald Trump?” he requested. “She laid you out.”
Sean Hannity, a impartial moderator? Fuhgeddaboudit.
As the talk started, Mr. Hannity allowed that he was a conservative, however stipulated that as a moderator, he can be truthful and nonpartisan.
About an hour later, he started one query with this assertion: “Joe Biden has skilled vital cognitive decline.”
Truthful he wasn’t.
Protestations apart, Mr. Hannity didn’t even attempt to be evenhanded. Time and again, he served up softballs to Mr. DeSantis, whereas shutting down Mr. Newsom’s makes an attempt to defend himself.
And he trotted out a sequence of well-prepared graphics to point out Florida in the very best mild, and California within the worst: on schooling, crime, tax charges and inhabitants loss and acquire. Mr. Newsom tried to rebut these graphics, however all Mr. DeSantis needed to do was flip to the graphics to say the Californian was a slick spinmeister.
Regardless of Newsom’s efforts, Biden had a troublesome evening.
The California governor wished to shine a rosy mild on Mr. Biden’s document earlier than a Fox Information viewers unused to listening to something constructive in regards to the president.
Inflation was down to three.2 p.c, he famous. Wage progress had topped 4 p.c, and financial progress within the final quarter was a blistering 5.2 p.c, he mentioned, including, “These are info you don’t hear on Fox Information.”
However in a two-on-one battle, these info most likely didn’t get via, particularly when each the moderator and the Florida governor have been double-teaming Mr. Newsom on their repeated assertions of the president’s cognitive decline. Mr. Newsom didn’t provide you with a very good protection on the matter, although he did say he would take Mr. Biden at 100 years previous over Mr. DeSantis at any age within the White Home.
Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Hannity additionally teamed up on the risks of an uncontrolled border, and when Mr. Newsom tried to hit Mr. DeSantis on having gladly taken cash from Mr. Biden’s signature achievements, together with thousands and thousands of {dollars} from the legislation he signed to advertise a home semiconductor trade and revive industrial science, Mr. Hannity simply moved the dialog alongside.