Newsom and DeSantis, presidential B-team, pulls off the gloves
Less than two months before primaries kick off embattled GOPcontender Ron DeSantis debated his political nemesis Gavin Newsom in Georgia, producing no clear victory.
Two of American’s most powerful governors and potential future presidents, California’s Gavin Newsom and Florida’s Ron DeSantis, locked horns on prime-time television on Thursday (Friday AEDT), in a bizarre shadow presidential contest that reflects growing scepticism surrounding the political futures of Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Putting it callously, Biden, 81, seemingly accelerating towards dotage, could die before the November 2024 presidential election, while his likely opponent Trump, facing four indictments, could be imprisoned.
The younger pair are the heirs apparent, and similarly poles apart politically: DeSantis, a 45- year-old more polished version of his former mentor Trump, rose to national prominence as the champion of freedom during the Covid-19 pandemic, the slayer of “woke”. His campaign in free fall less than two months from primary season, DeSantis relished the opportunity to slam Newsom over his state’s social decay, crime, relatively high taxes and allegedly extreme leftist education and health policies – Newsom wouldn’t even countenance any restriction on abortion, while DeSantis recently legislated a ban after six weeks.
“California has freedoms we don’t have elsewhere – like the freedom to defecate in public,” DeSantis said, holding up a map that measured the density of street faeces in San Francisco.
“You almost have to try to mess California up, yet that’s what Gavin Newsom has done since he’s been governor.”
Newsom, the suave, 56-year-old second-term governor of America’s most populous state, was calmer and more confident, with far less at stake, having repeatedly insisted he will not run against his Democratic Party leader Biden despite relentless speculation.
DeSantis won on content, having the far easier case to make: no-income-tax Florida is booming, while California’s population has undeniably shrunk for years as Californians fled Covid restrictions and the highest property prices in the nation.
But Newsom delivered the most stinging line of the night, declaring the one thing the pair had in common was “neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024”.
It would have hurt DeSantis, whose campaign has sagged ever since its technically disastrous launch on Elon Musk’s Twitter back in March.
In January, American bookies, according to an average compiled by RealClear Politics, gave DeSantis a 35 per cent chance of becoming president, ahead of Biden and Trump; now, amid the former president’s remarkable resurgence, his chances have dropped to less than 4 per cent.
Newsom is the third most likely person to become president, and he hasn’t even declared.
Sean Hannity, the Fox news moderator, pressed Newsom on whether he’d run if the party asked him, in the event Biden couldn’t or wouldn’t run. He evaded the question, declaring his unqualified support for the President and his embattled Vice-President Kamala Harris.
“I will take Joe Biden at a 100 versus Ron DeSantis any day of the week at any age,” he said.
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