Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accepted a debate offer from Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Wednesday.
DeSantis accepted Fox News anchor Sean Hannity’s offer to debate Newsom more than a month after the California Democrat agreed to participate in a potential debate.
“You heard Gavin make the offer, your answer is?” Hannity began.
“Absolutely, I’m game. Let’s get it done, tell me when and where, we’ll do it,” the Florida governor answered. “And here’s the thing, Sean, I mean in one respect the debate between California and Florida, you know, has already been had. As you suggest, people have been voting on that — they’ve been voting on it with their feet. They have fled California in record numbers. Florida has been the number one state for net in migration. We have the number one ranked economy, number one now in education, crime rate at a 50-year low.”
“But in another sense, this is the debate for the future of our country because you have people like Joe Biden, they would love to see the Californication of the United States,” DeSantis continued. “Biden may not even be the nominee, you could have Gavin Newsom. You could have Kamala Harris. And I think if we go down that direction, that’s gonna accelerate American decline. We can’t see America decline anymore, we need to reverse American decline.”
Newsom told Hannity he is willing to engage in a political debate with DeSantis in a potential forum moderated by the Fox News host in a June interview. (RELATED: ‘We Are Not A Sanctuary’: DeSantis Responds To Investigation Into Transporting Illegal Immigrants To California)
“I’m all in. Count on it,” Newsom told Hannity in June.
“You would do a two-hour debate with Ron DeSantis?” Hannity asked.
“Make it three,” Newsom responded. “I would do it one day’s notice with no notes. I look forward to that.”
DeSantis called on Newsom to “stop pussyfooting around” a possible presidential run against President Joe Biden in the 2024 primary during a June 15 press conference. He more recently said he is “fully prepared” to run against Newsom if the two were to be the nominees for their respective parties.
“I’m fully prepared to have a Florida-California showdown,” the governor told Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson in a July 14 interview. “And let the people choose what’s the better vision for the United States of America, because I’m very confident that the freedom in Florida is what more people would choose rather than the public defecation on the streets of San Francisco.”
The Florida governor recently visited San Francisco where he lamented the increased homeless and drug crises throughout the city. San Francisco has more than 7,700 homeless residents and pours $160 million annually into permanent housing programs to provide shelter for them.