While announcing his “Framework for Freedom” budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was asked about Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) agreeing (in principle) to a debate between the two rising stars in their respective parties.
The first part of Gov. DeSantis’ response highlighted California’s “huge problems,” including the exodus of people leaving the state.
“It’s interesting, He’s got huge problems in his state. I mean, huge problems in his state. We all know that. You see it in San Francisco. You see it in LA, you see it in the people fleeing. California from its inception gained population every single year until he became governor.”
DESANTIS responds to Gavin Newsom:
“He has a real, serious fixation on Florida, but what I would tell him is … stop pussyfooting around. Are you going to throw your hat in the ring and challenge Joe? Or are you going to sit on the sidelines and chirp? Why don't you throw your… pic.twitter.com/WGKDPMXKtD
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) June 15, 2023
Gov. DeSantis would go on to mention that he could understand people leaving colder states to go to warmer states because of the weather, but for people to leave California doesn’t make sense to him.
“He’s the first governor that’s overseen a massive exodus out of California. And you can kind of understand if somebody comes from Minnesota and moves to Naples – better winters – but if you’re leaving, like, southern California to move to Jacksonville, which is a great place, you’re not doing it because of the weather because they’ve got probably the best weather in the country. You’re doing it because the place is so mismanaged,” stated DeSantis.
DeSantis stated that he would only accept the challenge to debate Gov. Newsom if he joined the presidential race. He even stated that the Golden State governor is “pussyfooting” around it.
“Yet with all those problems, he has a real, serious fixation on the state of Florida. I mean, I think it’s just bizarre that he does that. But what I think I would tell him is, you know what, stop pussyfooting around. Are you going to throw your hat in the ring and challenge Joe? Are you going to get in or are you just going to sit on the sidelines and chirp? Why don’t you throw your hat in the ring and then we’ll go ahead and talk about what’s happening.”
The Framework for Freedom budget provides a historic $115 Billion package that includes scores of funding, tax relief, and salary increase records across all sectors of the economy. A historic $20 billion surplus in Florida’s reserves was tapped to finance initiatives aimed at returning unused taxpayer dollars to Floridians.
