In a recent heated debate between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and California Governor Gavin Newsom, an unexpected prop took center stage.
The debate, which aired on Fox News, saw the two governors clashing over various issues, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2024 presidential race, and LGBT+ rights. However, it was DeSantis's unusual use of a "poop map" of San Francisco that left viewers both puzzled and amused.
The incident occurred when Newsom criticized Florida's mental health resources, which he claimed were severely lacking compared to California's. "Ron has literally the worst mental health system in America, forgive me, outside of Mississippi and Texas. And so, with all due respect of being lectured on some of these topics, Ron DeSantis is not the one Im going to be listening to," Newsom stated.
In response, DeSantis reached into his suit jacket and produced a map of San Francisco, marked with brown spots. "This is a map of San Francisco," DeSantis said, presenting the map to the audience. "Theres a lot of plots on that. You may be asking: What is that plotting? Well, this is an app where they plot the human faeces that are found on the streets of San Francisco."
DeSantis went on to explain that the extensive coverage of brown markings on the map was indicative of the city's decline. "And you see how almost the whole thing is covered? Because this is what has happened in one of the previous greatest cities this country has ever had," he said.
Newsom could only laugh as DeSantis continued his argument, linking the issue of human waste on the streets to the recent visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping. DeSantis claimed that the city had cleaned up the streets for the communist leader's visit, but failed to do the same for its own residents.
The unusual display left social media users bewildered, with many making light of DeSantis's choice of prop. "Ron DeSantis just held up a poop map of San Francisco to show where people are tagging feces from homeless people on all the public streets. Holy s***. Literally," one user wrote.
Despite the mockery, former Trump press secretary and current Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany praised DeSantis's move, calling it "another strong and powerful moment" for the Republican governor.
The map DeSantis used was a graphic released in 2019 by OpenTheBooks.com, which plotted reports of human faeces across San Francisco from 2011 to 2019. The map featured over 75,000 points, each representing a reported sighting of human waste.
OpenTheBooks.com founder and CEO Adam Andrzejewski expressed pride in seeing his map used in the debate. "It was a cultural moment in 2019, and obviously it was a moment again this evening," he said.
This is not the first time DeSantis has commented on the issue of human waste in San Francisco. During a visit to the city in June, the Florida governor claimed to have witnessed people "defecating on the street" and using drugs. He used the experience to criticize liberal policies in the Democratic state and argue for the restoration of "sanity in this country."
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