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.”
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.
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 is supposed to be about discussing important topics to garner support. If the audience is already full of people who support one side or the other, then they’re just there for noise. And we should not be televising a cheering group of Nazis as a reasonable opponent.
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.