Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) vociferously defended President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris‘s record in a one-on-one debate against Republican presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who repeatedly attacked the Biden administration’s failures. Yet Newsom’s fierce defenses failed to stop questions about a future presidential run.
From his opening remarks through the end of the debate hosted by Fox News and moderated by anchor Sean Hannity, Newsom sought to convince voters that the Biden administration has been a positive force for the public and focus less on his own future beyond the governor’s mansion.
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“I’m here to tell the truth about the Biden-Harris record and also compare and contrast Ron DeSantis’s record and the Republican Party’s record as a point of contrast that’s as different as daylight and darkness,” Newsom said during his opening remarks Thursday night. “You want to bring us back to a pre-1960s world, America in reverse.”
The California governor even gave Biden an “A” grade when Hannity asked both men to rank Biden overall as president.
DeSantis, his sparring partner, concurred that Newsom has emerged as one of Biden’s top campaign surrogates and sought to link him to the Biden-Harris administration. “He thinks the economy is working because of their policies for Americans and they are not. And so what California represents is the Biden-Harris agenda on steroids,” DeSantis said. “They would love nothing more than to get four more years to be able to take the California model nationally that would be disastrous for working people.”
But DeSantis didn’t hesitate to knock Newsom over alleged rumors he is prepping for a White House run eventually.
In one heated exchange, the Florida governor taunted Newsom’s presidential ambitions in a back-and-forth exchange.
“I thought this guy was running for president of the United States,” Newsom said of DeSantis.
“You are too. You just won’t admit it,” DeSantis countered.
DeSantis once again accused Newsom of running for president later in the debate while hitting at Biden’s mental capacity due to his age. “Yes, he’s in decline. Yes. It’s a danger to the country. He has no business running for president,” DeSantis said of Biden. “And, you know, Gavin Newsom agrees with that. He won’t say that. That’s why he’s running his shadow campaign.”
However, Newsom had his own stinging rebuke about his and DeSantis’s future. “There’s one thing, in closing, that we have in common, is neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024,” Newsom said.
Hannity also asked Newsom point blank if he was running for president in 2024. “Will you say unequivocally under no circumstances are you running?” asked Hannity.
“Correct,” Newsom quickly answered. “I don’t know how many times I can say it — just making this stuff up about a shadow campaign.”
“Joe Biden will be our nominee in a matter of weeks, and in a matter of weeks, Sean, he’ll be endorsing Donald Trump as the nominee for the Republican Party,” Newsom said, referencing DeSantis trailing former President Donald Trump in the GOP primary race. “I appreciate and respect the work the president is doing and the vice president, the Biden-Harris campaign.”
Newsom also defended the vice president when DeSantis incorrectly pronounced her name. “And by the way, it’s not Kam-AH-la Harris. Shame on you,” he said. “It’s Kama-la Harris, Madame Vice President to you.”
Newsom: It’s Kamala Harris. Madame Vice President to you pic.twitter.com/I9DYWJr0OE
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 1, 2023
Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist, told the Washington Examiner that Newsom’s debate performance indicates positive signs for the Biden campaign. “First of all, looking at the debate, if I was Joe Biden, I would do everything he can to use Newsom as a surrogate and on the campaign trail next year,” Bannon said. “He’s very good. And secondly, this proves to me that all the talk about Newsom is right. He will be a real player in 2028. I think it shows he’d be a very formidable candidate.”
Bannon claimed that despite a debate setup that favored DeSantis, the California governor conducted himself in a successful manner. “I think DeSantis had a clear home-field advantage in this thing. But despite that, I think Newsom handled it very well,” he added. “And you can see why he’s a rising star because I think he was very good in that format. He’s a much smoother and more confident debater than DeSantis is.”
However, California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson was not swayed by Newsom, saying he “simply and predictably did not meet the moment.”
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“What Americans witnessed this evening was typical Gavin Newsom: a slick-talking used-car-salesman-impersonating presidential wannabe spewing word salads to cover up his own incompetence,” Patterson said in a statement Thursday night. “No matter how he wants to reimagine these issues, the facts don’t lie: he has driven California to the top of all the wrong lists and somehow thinks those policy failures justify a promotion to the White House. I hope he has enjoyed the national spotlight while he runs his shadow presidential campaign because it’s as close as he’ll ever get to holding our nation’s top office.”
Should Newsom decide to run, if not for the 2024 race but in 2028, he will likely have to contend with a wide field of rising Democratic stars, including Harris, another Californian who Newsom claims is Biden’s natural successor.
