The Extended Newsom-DeSantis Debate: How Jennifer Siebel Newsom Ended It

More accounts of the November 30th debate between Governor Gavin Newsom and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continued to come out this week, including a definitive reason why the debate didn’t go on longer despite both Newsom and DeSantis agreeing to an extension to it during the broadcast.

The long awaited “Great Red vs. Blue State Debate”, held in Alpharetta, Georgia, had been one of the most awaited non-presidential debates in recent memory. With DeSantis currently a 2024 Republican presidential nominee hopeful, and both being all-but-certain 2028 hopefuls in their respective parties, the debate was widely seen as a preview of a possible 2028 Presidential election debate.

The debate was also heavily promoted as a blue state v. red state matchup, with host Sean Hannity asking questions on taxes, the economy, inflation, crime, homelessness, public education, technology, responses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and more. During the night, the Governors got super specific on some questions, with DeSantis notoriously pulling out an app showing where human feces is found in the state and Newsom pointing out that strict, anti-LGBT measures in Florida have led to the pull out of companies and developments in Florida. Other highlights included DeSantis pulling out a pornographic book allowed in California schools under Newsom’s watch, and Newsom proving DeSantis wrong on some of his COVID lockdown facts by showing how closely DeSantis had actually followed federal COVID guidelines initially.

Initial reaction following the debate was all over the place, with some outlets outright declaring DeSantis the winner, to others calling it either a draw or for Newsom by a slight edge. Nearly two weeks later, DeSantis is now generally thought of as the overall winner. However, this is also marred by the fact that many political experts have evaluated it more as the debate being a fresh and honest exchange of positives and negatives in both red and blue states, as well as being one giving a renewed focus on both Governors during a time dominated by either Biden or Trump in the news.

“A lot of us have given debate more thought in the past few weeks, and while many had derided it as being ‘useless’ since the candidates were not running against each other, we’re seeing this debate more and more as bringing a lot of these state issues into the mainstream,” said Dean Campbell, a debate coach and advisor in Washington, to the Globe. “California has a lot wrong with it, and Florida has a lot wrong with it. But both states also have strengths. Newsom had no comebacks to high taxes or the economy, and likewise DeSantis was quiet on things regarding strict LGBT laws and Florida’s own huge homeless problem. It’s the kind of high-profile debate not taking place during an election you wish you had more of. In between the bickering and bantering, there was an honest exchange of ideas that have worked and not worked for each state. If this format is more refined and they keep up with everything needing to be backed up by facts, this could be really informative.”

A possible longer debate

However, in recent days, it has come out that the 90 minute debate could have gone on for even longer, with more topics being discussed. During the debate itself, Hannity said that he had more questions but that there was no more time. This prompted Governor Newsom to say “Let’s just do an extended hour, I’m happy to do it.” After confirming with DeSantis that he wanted to go on as well, Hannity added that “They have agreed to stay … We’ll continue on the other side.” However, after a commercial break, Hannity had to say that both Governors had other commitments, leading many to wonder why it ended so abruptly.

NBC reported the day after that both the DeSantis team and the Newsom team were constantly objecting to each other behind the scenes during the debate. Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, in particular was singled out, telling off Fox News workers several times for supposed debate violations and being the one to abruptly end the debate. While the last part was only a rumor, DeSantis himself confirmed it on Monday when giving an interview on “The Clay & Buck Show.”

“You’re saying Gavin Newsom’s wife basically like, it was like Rocky,” asked Clay Travis. “She threw the towel in and said, ‘Hey, we got to get – we’re out. We’re done with this.’ Like, what was that experience?”

DeSantis responded by saying “Yeah, we were standing at the podiums. He said, ‘You guys want to go?’ I’m like, ‘That’s fine.’ And and I guess we had already gone over the allotted 90 minutes. But it was fun. And that was pretty shortly after I did the San Francisco poop map and showed that to everybody. And so that obviously was not a good moment for him.”

While many pundits said on Tuesday that this was a sign of Newsom throwing in the towel in the debate, others said it was likely for a mix of reasons.

“Yeah, so, Newsom was just slammed several timed by DeSantis, but also keep in mind they hit the 90 minute mark, so they fulfilled their obligations,” added Campbell. “Networks have tight programming schedules, so Fox News could have said something too. But what we do know, with Newsom’s wife, she was frustrated throughout the night and just didn’t want this to continue. She was really not a fan to how it was all planned out and how DeSantis broke debate agreements, but also Gavin was  not doing very well at that time. It’s not a good look for her. I mean, kudos for both Gavin and Ron for wanting to continue on. They were both obviously having a good time with the debate and you could tell that they usually were not allowed to say a lot of those things in that kind of volume to their main rivals face like that before.”

“What’s a shame is that it didn’t go on further. I mean, there’s a lot of things that they didn’t go into detail on or just touched on. Also, debates like these usually are allowed a moment for both candidates to genuinely compliment another, and that could have been a good humanizing moment for both of them. Mutual respect.

“This is a big what-if. Newsom wanted to keep going. Could he have come back? Previous debates have shown that he does get stronger later on in debates. Or for DeSantis, could he have delivered a coup de grace? Newsom was struggling with some issues there. Imagine if they went deeper into affordable housing or disaster relief readiness? His wife may have stepped out in front of the cameras live to end it if that happened.”

“But this new info, it isn’t a good look for Newsom, even though he wanted to keep going. His wife seemingly ended it. It could have been so much more.”

As of Tuesday, there have been no calls for a follow-up debate.