California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Wednesday explained why he decided to “debate” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Fox News last week, given that Newsom isn’t running for president and GOP candidate DeSantis is trailing so far behind Republican 2024 front-runner Donald Trump in the polls.
“I’ve developed a lot of animus towards him because of his animus toward all of you,” Newsom told “Late Night” host Seth Meyers and his studio audience.
DeSantis “is out there scapegoating vulnerable communities,” he said. “He’s attacking minorities, attacking women and I don’t like it, and I wanted to push back against it.”
Newsom noted that DeSantis is “out there talking about anti-woke,” but he argued the Florida governor actually means “anti-Black.”
“He’s out there censoring historic facts. He’s rewriting history. He eliminated AP African-American studies. He said, ‘Slavery was somehow some workforce development program,’ and he doubled down on that,” Newsom said of DeSantis.
For Newsom, who has admitted to being an avid consumer of Fox News to counter right-wing talking points, he said it was important to “hold these guys accountable on a network where they don’t hear from guys like me, ever.”
He added, “It was an honor” to appear on Fox “to tell the truth about the Biden record and to make the case for Biden’s election.”
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