California governor Gavin Newsom mocked Florida governor Ron DeSantis on live television for taking the “bait” in debating him while calling DeSantis a “distracted” candidate.
“Why is he doing it? That’s the right question. He’s running — I think, I’m not sure after tonight — but currently he’s running for president of the United States,” Newsom said in an interview Wednesday.
.@GavinNewsom says he “baited” @RonDeSantis into debating him:
“The fact he took the bait…shows he’s completely unqualified to be President.”
“Why is he debating a guy who is not even running for President?”
“My…opinion, he regrets running…he made a huge mistake.” pic.twitter.com/ObzjQzEB6Y
— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) September 28, 2023
The California governor’s remarks come on the heels of the second GOP debate, in Simi Valley, Calif., where he said he wasn’t particularly impressed with DeSantis or the rest of the Republican presidential field. Newsom attended the event.
Newsom and DeSantis are set to debate in Georgia on November 30. When asked by Fox 11 Los Angeles news anchor Elex Michaelson about the possibility of DeSantis’s still being a candidate by then, Newsom said, “Part of me wonders.”
“The fact that he took this debate, the fact that he took the bait in relation to this debate, shows that he’s completely unqualified to be president of the United States,” he said.
“I mean why is he debating a guy who’s not even running for president when he’s running for president?” Newsom said. “He’s showing up at the Reagan Library, hallowed ground, and he puts out an ad today not for his presidential campaign, to promote a debate against the governor of California. I mean this guy’s distracted, so I don’t know that he has it in his heart. I think — here’s my personal opinion about Ron DeSantis — he regrets running for president.”
It’s been speculated that Newsom will run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2024, but that has yet to be the case. In fact, he has publicly supported Biden for reelection. Still, he continues goading the Florida governor.
“He made a huge mistake. He listened to his consultants. He bought his own hype. He had this little God complex,” Newsom said of DeSantis. “I mean, look at the ads themselves . . . literally, God created . . . I mean he bought into all this stuff, and he quickly regretted it, but he’s stuck. And here’s the problem, you get one chance at first impressions — he’s belly-flopped. He’s down 30-plus points from where he started. So it’s a terrible situation for him.”
Fox News anchor Sean Hannity will moderate DeSantis and Newsom’s “red state vs. blue state” 90-minute debate.