California Gov. Gavin Newsom checked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday after he took aim at Newsom’s “leadership” in the state on Fox News.
DeSantis, in an interview with Sean Hannity, claimed that his state was ranked “number one” for its “economy, new business, higher education” before rattling off a number of things that California ranks first in.
“They’re number one in homelessness, they’re number one in public defecation, they’re number one in tent cities on sidewalks and in public places. Yes, they’re number one for highest income tax, they’re number one for highest sales tax, number one for highest gas tax and they have the highest electricity rates in the continental United States,” DeSantis said.
“So they are number one in a lot of things, just not the things you’d want to be number one in,” he added.
Newsom responded to Hannity’s clip of DeSantis’ comments on X, taking issue with his caption that his state “may be number one but only in all the wrong categories.”
″‘wrong categories’ - 4th largest economy in the world - #1 in manufacturing - #1 in farming - #1 in new business starts. - #1 for tech and VC investments - #1 for Fortune 500 companies - #1 public higher education system,” he wrote.
In another clip from the interview, DeSantis — who was once rocked by the California governor in a debate hosted by Hannity in 2023 — responded to the Fox News host’s suggestion that it’s time for another debate.
“Would that be fair? You up for it?” Hannity asked.
“Oh, of course it’d be fair, it’d be fun. I know he’s not going to do that. I think he is settled into this — being a troller of President Trump,” DeSantis said. “It seems to get him some notoriety with kind of their far left base.”
Newsom had a simple response to the debate challenge, “Hahahhahahahahaha.”
Newsom’s team — in a separate, Trump-like post to his @GovPressOffice account on X — shared a clip of Hannity jokingly praising the California governor.
“WOW! SEAN HANNITY: ‘GAVIN, YOU’RE DOING GREAT. I’M PROUD OF YOU!’ EVEN FOX NEWS AGREES THAT I, GAVIN C. NEWSOM AM THE #1 GOVERNOR IN U.S. HISTORY. ONLY I CAN CHANGE HEARTS, MINDS, AND FOX’S AWFUL RATINGS! AN HONOR!!! — GCN,” read the post.