California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) team slammed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ® counterproposal for a debate as a “joke” on Saturday, claiming that the Republican presidential candidate’s suggested rules are meant to “hide his insecurity and ineptitude.”
Having an audience in debates is good TV, but it’s not good for debates.
In this case, it will be an especially loaded audience that gives Desantis a marked advantage. Why would Newsoms team agree to that instead of a neutral debate?
Again, the DeSantis memo specifies a 50/50 audience
A debate is supposed to be about discussing important topics to garner support. If the audience is already full of people who support one side or the other, then they’re just there for noise. And we should not be televising a cheering group of Nazis as a reasonable opponent.