Breaking News: GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis Blasts Gov. Gavin Newsom During California Speech, Claims California “Hemorrhaging Population” To Florida

Credit: Fox News

Governor Ron DeSantis called out California Governor Gavin Newsom during a speech on Sunday, saying that Californians are fleeing the state in large numbers to come and live in Florida where they can live freely.

“I knew you guys got a lot of problems out here, but your governor is very concerned about what we’re doing in Florida, so I figured I had to come by,” DeSantis joked at the start of his speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

DeSantis said Reagan “understood the vital role that government had to play” and how it could be a “negative force if not applied properly.” He said he governed Florida with that same understanding throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“And I think if you look over the last four or five years, and you look at the performances of individual states, and you compare Florida versus California, New York, Illinois, some of those other states, we have had a great experiment, a great test in governing philosophies,” he said. “Because, of course, you know, we approach things much differently in Florida than you guys have out here, much differently in Florida than they’ve done in New York and in Illinois.”

“And if you look over the last four years, we’ve witnessed a great American exodus from states governed by leftist politicians imposing leftist ideology and delivering poor results, and you’ve seen massive gains in states like Florida, who are governing according to the tried and true principles that President Reagan held dear,” he continued. “From the beginning of this state’s history, all the way until the last four or five years, people beat a path to California. You didn’t beat a path away from California. And yet now, you see the state hemorrhaging population.”

DeSantis said that Florida became a bastion of freedom for many when states like California became a “biomedical security state” based on political ideology and not data.

“And I can tell you, we had families move from the Pacific coast just for the fact that we had schools open in Florida, when you didn’t have them open in many other states,” he said.

“We did things like ban vaccine passports in the state of Florida. States said, ‘You want to go stay in a hotel, go to a restaurant, you got to cough up your vax papers on these mRNA shots.’ And we said that’s none of their business. Everyone has a right to participate in society. That’s a personal choice that you make whether to take that or not, and we’re not going to let you be excluded.”

DeSantis spoke to a crowd of more than 1,300 attendees at the Reagan library.

Simi Valley police said that vandals targeted the library overnight ahead of the governor’s visit with graffiti. The graffiti read “Ron DeFascist”, KTLA reported.

Library employees were able to clean up the paint before the governor’s visit.

The event on Sunday was to kick off DeSantis’ new book, “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival” which was released last Tuesday.

The governor has not officially announced if he will be running for President in 2024, but many speculate he will be a candidate.