California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) team slammed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ® counterproposal for a debate as a “joke” on Saturday, claiming that the Republican presidential candidate’s suggested rules are meant to “hide his insecurity and ineptitude.”
“What a joke,” Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click said in a statement, according to Politico. “Desantis’ counterproposal is littered with crutches to hide his insecurity and ineptitude — swapping opening statements with a hype video, cutting down the time he needs to be on stage, adding cheat notes and a cheering section.”
If true, that is so weak.
DeCreepy folds under pressure and refuses to be challenged, even when he knows he’s wrong. There was a story about how he would intentionally pronounce a word wrong, and if his date corrected him, he would end the date right there.
“Thigh” food aka Thai food, yes. What a pathetic weakling.
I’m not trying to defend Ronny by any stretch, but after reading the DeSantis memo, I can’t say I find most of it weird. Yes, the video thing is highly unusual. Why bother with that if you’re just gonna debate for 90 minutes anyway? Saving 2 minutes is weird.
As for the pad of paper requested, I can’t say I’ve ever seen a debate where people don’t make notes. And also, most debates do have audiences. Do I trust Fox not to stuff it with hard rights losers? Of course not, but debating in front of an audience is not an odd request. And they claim it would be a 50/50 audience (edit: it’s obvious which side would be rowdy and annoying and which would be respectful audience members though)
Overall, I just don’t think it’s a great look for Newsom to slam DeSantis’ fairly tame counteroffer as extreme. It easy to portray him as trying to back out
Stop playing mental gymnastics to justify ol Ronny trying to switch the rules when his bluff was called.
It’s obvious panic among Desantis campaign staff trying to reject accepted terms and then inject arbitrary nonsense to make the debate even more of a generic advertisement with no substance.
I’m not trying to defend Ronny by any stretch, but after reading the DeSantis memo, I can’t say I find most of it weird. Yes, the video thing is highly unusual. Why bother with that if you’re just gonna debate for 90 minutes anyway? Saving 2 minutes is weird.
He’s trying to pump his closeted homo-erotica to the rest of the world. it’s hard to get oily beefcakes up on stage and explain how they got there, and why they got there.
What specifically about the memo, linked in the article, was that bad though? I hate Ronnny as much as the next sane American, but I really think the Newsom response is over the top here
No opening remarks, replaced with a 2 minute commercial to be approved by Fox News.
Live audience to make it an audience cheers or jeers sports game rather than a debate on serious issues for a serious job.
Both of those are laughable changes from a non-audienced serious debate among serious and capable candidates…
Other items in the memo are just innocuous points of procedure.
Besides during COVID, when in modern history did a debate not have an audience? I’ve already commented on the absurdity of the taped intro
Having an audience in debates is good TV, but it’s not good for debates.
In this case, it will be an especially loaded audience that gives Desantis a marked advantage. Why would Newsoms team agree to that instead of a neutral debate?
Again, the DeSantis memo specifies a 50/50 audience
A debate with a live audience is stupid. I don’t want anyone interrupting the actual debate and I don’t need people to clap to know when something good was said. It’s literally just done for entertainment.
Just thought of a great debate adjustment. Each side gets equal time, and every time they jump in and interrupt the person whose time it is, they get double that amount of time taken off their next turn…and their mic is cut entirely during that time. The amount of childish, unmoderated foot stomping and disrespect is absolutely ridiculous lately.
I’d like to add, that the mic isn’t cut out, precisely. Rather. What I would like to see is that the mic is instead piped into a speech-to-text generator so we can get subtitles.
Let the main pundit speak, but let us see the subtitles of the “no that’s not true” type bullshit.
Insert Bobby Hill ‘they would be offended if they could read’ meme here
Or filter their voices so they sound like they just sucked a pint of helium.
DeSantis is a disgrace to every uniform.
He’s a disgrace to human flesh.
To organics!
I guess RonnyBoi needs every advantage he can get?
The 2 minute video is weird, but why object to a live audience? I’d rather see that than an empty room debate.
I’m actually over the live audience debates. I don’t need to be “told” when to cheer or when to boo by some audience of party loyalists and donors. Half of the time candidates are just playing to to audience and trying to get the biggest response and not really answering the question and often not engaging with the person next to them.
Honestly I think audiences should be setup like juries for these events. It makes a lot more sense to have an audience of mixed diversities and lifestyles react live in front of the whole country than allowing it to be a highschool popularity vote.
Remember when your teacher made everyone put their heads down when voting on something?
Maybe one side is seen as more likely to try to heckle the other? I think the governor of California wants it to be more in depth. The differences to me makes it look like the governor of Florida doesn’t want an in depth debate, just something flashy and fast.
Edited for tone, I’m trying to type nicer.
Just do it, newsom.
