DeSantis holds up map of ‘human faeces’ during Newsom debate
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Ron DeSantis held up a map of “human faeces” in a bizarre stunt during a televised debate with Gavin Newsom on Thursday night.
The Florida governor took part in a live debate with his California counterpart, in what was dubbed the “Great Red vs Blue State Debate” on Fox News.
Mr DeSantis, who is polling second in the Republican primary race, agreed to debate Mr Newsom in an apparent bid for airtime ahead of the first caucus in Iowa next month.
The event saw the two men argue over which of their states had performed better on various economic and social metrics, and discuss the 2024 presidential election between Joe Biden and the yet-to-be-decided Republican nominee.
During the debate, Mr DeSantis held up a printed map of what he said were “human faeces” on the streets of San Francisco in an attempt to discredit Mr Newsom’s record on sanitation.
App plotting human faeces found on streets
“This is a map of San Francisco,” he told viewers. “There’s a lot of plots on that. You may be asking: ‘What is that plotting?’
“Well, this is an app where they plot the human faeces that are found on the streets of San Francisco, and you see how almost the whole thing is covered?
“Because that is what has happened - in one of the previous greatest cities this country has ever had. Human faeces is now a fact of life.”
It came after Mr Newsom mocked the Florida governor for his position in the primary polls, telling Sean Hannity, the moderator: “There’s one thing that we have in common. Neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.”
Mr Newsom, who has been tipped for a presidential run in 2028, has been operating as a “surrogate” of the Biden campaign, defending the president on news programmes as his popularity wanes with American voters.
He previously denied that he was considering challenging the president in a Democratic primary race, and argues that if Mr Biden is forced to drop out due to ill health, then Kamala Harris should take his place.
Mr DeSantis currently has the support of around 12.6 per cent of Republican voters, according to the FiveThirtyEight poll aggregator.
Clash over gay rights
Mr Trump is by far the party’s frontrunner, with 60 per cent support, while Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy trail with 9.5 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively.
The pair clashed on gay rights, after Mr DeSantis was challenged on his “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida, which restricts teachers from telling students about sexuality or gender identity until at least the third grade.
“I don’t like the way you demean people, I don’t like the way you demean the LGBTQ community,” Mr Newsom said.
“I don’t like the way you demean and humiliate people you disagree with, Ron.”
In a debate that frequently descended into the two men talking over each other, they also disagreed on the effect of California and Florida’s rival lockdown restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr DeSantis said: “You were not following science. You were a lockdown governor. You did a lot of damage to your people. You had more kids locked out of school for a longer period of time in California than anywhere else in the country.”
Mr Newsom responded: “He decided to fall prey to the fringe of his party. And as a consequence of that, Ron, tens of thousands of people lost their lives.”
