Former Clinton advisor and Democratic strategist Doug Schoen said Tuesday on Fox News that the upcoming debate between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a “personal insult” to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Newsom and DeSantis will face off in a debate Nov. 30 hosted by Fox News’ Sean Hannity at a forum in Georgia. The debate will last 90 minutes. DeSantis accepted Hannity’s offer back in August to debate Newsom, weeks after Newsom initially agreed to debate in the hypothetical matchup.
“Doug, I’m coming to you first. You’re the vice president. You’re Kamala Harris and they pick this guy, also from your state of California, to go give the rebuttal, if you will, after that debate,” Faulkner said. (RELATED: DeSantis – Newsom Debate’s Proposed Rules Released, Governor’s Spox Calls Them ‘A Joke’)
“Well, my take on that is it is a direct personal insult to the vice president and also, Harris, to be clear, is a [sic] acknowledgement — I was going to say tacit but I mean explicit — acknowledgement that her poll numbers are even worse than Joe Biden’s fading poll numbers,” Schoen said.
“And your introduction, Harris, to be completely candid, is exactly right,” he continued. “This is crisis time. Their ‘Bidenomics’ advertising is not working. The sense that the country is out of control and is at drift on the wrong direction is growing. Bottom line, Democrats everywhere are increasingly saying Joe Biden shouldn’t run.”
Harris has struggled with low approval ratings and media criticism, with former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain attributing her low numbers to “sexism and racism.” Senate Democrats have also been reluctant to throw their support behind the vice president, with four Democratic or independent senators declining to say whether they would endorse Harris as Biden’s running mate.
Newsom, who has been seen as a leading contender to challenge the Biden-Harris administration, defended Biden’s job as president and gave a full-throated defense of Harris in a September interview.