‘He Got the Hook’: DeSantis Reveals How His Fox News Debate With Newsom Abruptly Ended

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) revealed on the latest episode of Hang Out with Sean Hannity that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was pulled from their debate on Fox News in 2023 by his team after agreeing to keep going.

“There is a backstory that your team told me I didn’t tell as it relates to the debate that you had that I was moderating. Now I tried to be fair—I just said, ‘Here are the numbers in California, here are the numbers in Florida,’ let you guys go at it. I tried to let the debate breathe,” began Hannity, the veteran Fox News host, in a preview clip from the podcast interview, which will be released in full on Tuesday. He added:

People to this day ask me about that debate, but the backstory is this: it was supposed to go from 9 to 10:30. I’m looking at the clock, it’s 10:36. I’m like, “Guys, we gotta end this.” And Gavin goes, “Ah, having such a good time.” And I’m like, “Would you like to stay governor? Yes. Governor DeSantis, yes. All right, quick break, right back. We’ll continue. More of our state versus state debate. Red versus blue.” And then something happened, and we did not continue that debate. You wanna tell a story?

DeSantis replied, “Well, you were there. I mean, you know, he got the hook from, I think, his wife and some of his staff. They were like—”

Hannity jumped in, “They ran out into the studio, ‘You’re done.’”

“‘Shut it down,” DeSantis added, continuing, “And so I was just kind of sitting there. I didn’t know what to do. And then obviously, you had to finish the show. So it was kind of awkward. I’ll tell you, though, this: when we did the first commercial break, I went to use the head. And I know that they were not happy that I invoked the father-in-law. I mean, they were hissing me when I was going back there.”

“But the reality is that the truth hurts. I mean, it is what it is. And they were unhappy because you just put up the true facts. I mean, it is what it is. And I tell you, I think what people have told me about that debate—you know, obviously the people that are more Republican, you know, they’re not going to like him,” he continued, concluding:

But I think what they thought about is, you know, “He thinks he’s really good at lying on some of this stuff.” But the lies have to be at least somewhat believable. When you honestly sit there and say California has lower taxes than Florida, you are lying. Everybody knows you’re lying. Everybody in Florida knows you’re lying, and everybody in California knows.

They have the highest income tax in America, the highest gas tax in America, and we’re a state with no income tax, and we rely on sales tax. Their sales tax is higher than the state of Florida’s. So give me a break. I mean, where are you getting that you’re saying that? And so people just don’t find it credible. And so I think that when you’re gonna try to sell snake oil, you know, you just cross a line where people just know it’s BS.

Watch the clip above and the full interview on Tuesday on Hannity’s YouTube channel.

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