Newsom Asks DeSantis, ‘When Are You Gonna Drop Out and at Least Give Nikki Haley a Shot to Take Down Donald Trump?’

California Governor Gavin Newsom asked his Floridian counterpart when he plans to drop his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, given that he and the candidates not named Donald Trump are far behind first place in the polls.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, once seen as a threat to Trump for the nomination, has fallen behind former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in some surveys.

Newsom took several swipes at DeSantis during their debate on Fox News, moderated by Sean Hannity on Thursday night.

Toward the end of the event, the governors tangled on the issue of China

“I don’t see that the Biden administration has been tough with them,” Hannity said, turning to DeSantis. “What would you do differently?”

“Well, first, in Florida, we banned China from buying land in our state,” he replied. “We also got the Confucius institutes out of our universities. China should not be involved in our universities at all. What you need to do, is, you need to have hard power in the Indo-Pacific to deter China’s ambitions. You need to take the economy and we need to decouple from China. We’re dependent on them for so many things.”

DeSantis then hit Newsom over his recent meeting with President Xi Jinping in China. After concluding his response, Newsom dinged the governor over his position in the Republican primary.

“This is just a reminder,” Newsom began. “I think it’s a question some people are probably asking. I know Nikki Haley’s campaign is asking. When are you gonna drop out and at least give Nikki Haley a shot to take down Donald Trump for this nomination? She laid you out.”

“You wish,” DeSantis replied. “You wish.”

“What about China?” Hannity asked, trying to get Newsom on topic.

“I confronted Xi on the issue of fentanyl, Ron” Newsom said. “I confronted them on human rights.”

“Not on human rights, you didn’t,” DeSantis replied.

“I absolutely did, with the foreign minister and vice president and other leaders in China,” Newsom insisted.

Watch above via Fox News.