Photo: Alamy
Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., scored a touchdown in his gubernatorial debate against Democrat opponent Charlie Crist, smacking down his challenger with a hefty dose of humor and facts.
DeSantis won over the debate audience with a single, winning comment, hitting back at Crist’s accusations that he has been too consumed with hypothetically running for president in 2024.
DeSantis quipped, “Well, listen, I know that Charlie is interested in 2024 and Joe Biden, but I just want to make things very, very clear. The only worn-out, old donkey I’m looking to put out to pasture is Charlie Crist.”
Via Just the News, Monday night’s debate touched on various subjects ranging from the rising cost of living to DeSantis’s leadership in Hurricane Ian’s destructive wake. Notably, DeSantis delivered a knockout response regarding his pro-life stance and Florida’s 15-week abortion ban.
Gov. DeSantis shared a story about a poor woman in Jamaica who found herself pregnant and “didn’t think there’d be much opportunity to have a child” and was “urged to abort the baby.”
However, the governor said that the abortion did not happen, and the mother ended up having the baby. “A few months ago,” DeSantis continued, “I appointed her daughter to be the first Jamaican-American justice in the history of the Florida Supreme Court.”
The audience applauded the governor as he said, “I just think we’re better when everybody counts. I understand not everyone’s going to be born in perfect circumstances, but I would like to see everybody have a shot. I’m proud of the 15 weeks that we did, I know Charlie Crist opposes that, even though the baby is fully formed, has a heartbeat, can feel pain and can suck their thumb – he also supports sex-selective abortions, which is used to discriminate against little girls.”
DeSantis also took a swing at the fentanyl epidemic that has plagued the United States over the past year.
“I signed legislation raising the penalties for people who are trafficking fentanyl,” he said. “…If you’re trafficking that garbage, that poison, you are killing people in our state, and we are gonna treat you like the murderer that you are.”
DeSantis’s Democrat challenger, Crist, formerly served as the governor of Florida as a Republican. However, Crist officially changed his party affiliation to the Democrat Party in 2012, via The Washington Post.
