Newsom taunts DeSantis: 'He's belly-flopped'

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom taunted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the Republican governor’s fading presidential prospects on Tuesday.

“He’s belly flopped. He’s belly flopped,” Newsom said Tuesday during an interview with POLITICO.

"The best thing that could happen to DeSantis," Newsom added, "is tomorrow, he packs it in and keeps his money and fights another day."

Newsom has long reveled in lambasting DeSantis, using his Republican nemesis as a foil to attack conservative policies and promote California progressivism. Earlier this year, he responded to DeSantis’s swing through California by predicting his presidential run would falter.

“You're going to get smoked by Trump,” Newsom said in March.

That prediction may prove prescient. DeSantis has tumbled far behind Trump in polls of California Republicans, clearing a path to the state’s deep reservoir of GOP presidential delegates, as Trump continues to lead the field.

“These guys — they’re done. They’re toast,” Newsom said of Trump’s Republican rivals. “DeSantis thinks he can spin coming in fourth is a win in Iowa.”

Newsom said DeSantis’s bid has foundered because of his focus on culture war issues like corporate diversity efforts and educational curricula rather than pressing in-state issues like “the complete disaster” of homeowners’ insurance issues.

"He thought it was more important to threaten librarians by criminalizing banned books, banned speech," Newsom said, reprising an inauguration speech in which he lambasted DeSantis and other Republican governors. "He has only himself to blame that he prioritized those issues over the issues that truly matter to the American people."

DeSantis has punched back at Newsom, using a fundraising swing through California in June to shoot a campaign spot in San Francisco that accused Democrats of destroying the “once-great” city. He has consistently touted Florida’s relatively lax Covid-19 response as preferable to Newsom’s more stringent approach.