California Governor Gavin Newsom in Thursday night's debate shredded his Florida counterpart, GOP hopeful Ron DeSantis, for purportedly offensive attacks that "demean the LGBTQ community."
Newsom and DeSantis signed up to debate on Fox News, which has Sean Hannity hosting. Earlier in the night, the debate went off the rails as DeSantis tried to interrupt and talk over Newsom, and Newsom calmly stood his ground and rattled off statistics, appearing keen to use his time on the stage to talk up President Joe Biden's record to the Fox News viewership.
Afterward, Newsom took it upon himself to zero in on DeSantis' past attacks on anything connected to LGBTQ. Specifically, he targeted the Florida governor over his "Don't say gay" law in that state.
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"It was not allowing teachers who happen to be gay to teach," Newsom said in the debate, referencing a 1970s law that predates DeSantis' own. "Reagan said, you can't catch gay like you can measles. I don't like the way you demean people. I don't like the way you demean the LGBTQ community."
He then added:
"I don't like how you humiliate people you disagree with. I find this fundamentally offensive and this is a core value that distinguishes the values of my state and frankly the vast majority of Americans against the weaponization of education."