Govs. Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis expended a lot vitality accusing each other of mendacity at their debate Thursday evening.
“A blizzard of lies,” mentioned DeSantis, the Florida Republican and 2024 presidential candidate.
“I can’t wait to get all the PolitiFacts tonight,” mentioned California Democrat Newsom, referring to the favored fact-checking nonprofit.
Well, we’ve got a couple of of them.
The 90-minute change, moderated by Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, lined matters starting from the economic system to abortion to homelessness to the Israel-Hamas War.
Many claims had been made. Here are scores for a few of them.
Quotes have been frivolously edited to make up for the governors interrupting one another.
U-Hauls and migration
Claim: California at one level ran out of U-Hauls resulting from residents fleeing the state.
“They actually at one point ran out of U-Hauls in the state of California because so many people were leaving,” mentioned DeSantis
Rating: True
Explanation: U-Haul did run out of vans in California in 2021. Because demand for outbound strikes from California was so excessive in 2020, it left U-Haul groups within the state with restricted one-way inventories at the beginning of 2021. By 2022, a U-Haul spokesman mentioned, the corporate was in a position to meet buyer demand.
“We sustained a shortage of available one-way trucks and trailers for outbound moves at times during 2020 and 2021 in California and other West Coast locations due to a substantially greater outflow vs. inflow of equipment,” the spokesman instructed The Bee in 2022.
New knowledge from the census bureau exhibits that extra individuals left California for Florida in 2022 than in any yr going again to at the very least 2005. But claims of an enormous California-to-Florida migration are largely inflated. Of all of the U.S. residents who moved to Florida final yr, lower than 7% got here from California.
An estimated 50,701 individuals left California for Florida between 2021 and 2022, in response to latest census figures, making Florida the third-most fashionable home vacation spot for Golden State expats. About 28,000 moved from Florida to California. So, a state with a inhabitants of 39.2 million misplaced a internet 22,000 residents to Florida.
Gas costs
Claim: “You have $6 or $7 gallon gas. How can people afford that?” requested DeSantis.
Rating: Not at the moment, sir.
Explanation: Average fuel costs in California are underneath $5 proper now, in response to Triple AAA. Mid-grade is correct above $5, premium is $5.22 and diesel is $5.81.
In Florida, common costs vary from $3.17 for normal to $4.02 for diesel. The nationwide common was $3.27 for normal.
Electric vehicles
Claim: “Pretty soon in California, you’re not going to be able to buy a normal car, only electric vehicles,” DeSantis mentioned.
Rating: Misleading
Explanation: To assist ramp up electrical autos, state local weather officers final yr did ban the sale of latest gas-powered vehicles by 2035. But Californians are anticipated to proceed buying gas-powered autos for a few years to come back — simply not new ones.
Clean vitality and the facility grid
Claim: California’s clear vitality insurance policies are inflicting brownouts and grid points.
DeSantis mentioned a few days after the state ordered the ban on new fuel automotive gross sales, ”there was a discover from the state authorities telling EV house owners to not plug them in as a result of they don’t have grid capability.”
Rating: Marginally true.
Explanation: During a triple-digit warmth wave per week after Newsom issued the ban, California did ask EV house owners to restrict charging throughout peak night hours. Experts acknowledge that extra automotive and constructing electrification, coupled with increasing reliance on renewable vitality sources equivalent to photo voltaic and wind, pose a problem to grid reliability.
Taxes
Claim: California has the nation’s highest tax fee.
Newsom mentioned Florida “taxes low income workers more than we tax millionaires and billionaires in the state of California…It’s a factual lie that the state of California has the highest tax rate.”
Rating: Depends who you ask.
Explanation: California’s prime fee of 13.3% is the nation’s highest, but it surely applies solely to these with incomes of greater than $1 million. Florida has no particular person revenue tax.
WalletHub examines particular person taxes by taking a look at general burdens. Its 2023 ranking measures the proportion of whole private revenue somebody pays in state and native taxes, together with revenue, property and gross sales and excise taxes. Florida ranks forty sixth, the place the upper the quantity, the decrease the taxes. California is twelfth, largely due to its revenue tax.
Murder charges
Claim: Florida has the next homicide fee than California.
“Seven of the top 10 murder rates in the United States of America are red states. (DeSantis) has a 66% higher gun death rate than the state of California. He has a higher murder rate,” mentioned Newsom
Rating: True.
Explanation: Per capita, Florida has the next homicide fee than California, in response to 2021 knowledge — the latest out there — from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Florida had 7.4 homicides per 100,000 whole inhabitants in 2021. California had 6.4 homicides per 100,000. Both had been beneath the U.S. fee of seven.8 per 100,000.
When it involves firearm mortality, which incorporates deaths by suicide, Florida had 14.1 fatalities per 100,000 individuals in 2021. California, which has a few of the nation’s strictest gun legal guidelines, had 9 per 100,000.
It’s 2020 knowledge that has been broadly cited for homicide charges in pink and blue states, together with by Newsom right here. In 2020, there have been six murders per 100,000 residents in blue states. The pink state fee was 14 per 100,000, CDC knowledge exhibits.
Newsom is correct that seven of the highest 10 states with the very best murder charges are pink. But that development doesn’t maintain for all of them: Idaho and Utah, which each voted for Donald Trump in 2020, maintained two of the six lowest charges. Eight of the ten states with the nation’s lowest homicide charges had been blue.
Education
Claim: Florida college students had extra studying loss from COVID.
“Ron DeSantis had more learning loss during COVID — fourth grade reading, fourth grade math, eighth grade reading, eighth grade math,” Newsom mentioned. “We outperformed you in every — it’s a fact, during COVID — in every one of those categories.”
Rating: Not now.
Explanation: The federal COVID-19 public well being emergency resulted in May 2023. In 2022, Florida college students on common had been outperforming California counterparts on check scores.
The U.S. Department of Education Nation’s Report Card discovered that in 2022, California public faculty 4th graders’ studying efficiency was roughly on the nationwide common. Florida’s rating was above common. Eighth-grade studying in each states was each across the common.
Math scores for Florida’s public faculty fourth-graders had been considerably greater than the common and much beneath in California in 2022. For eighth-graders, Florida was at in regards to the nationwide common whereas California college students examined far decrease.
Transgender rights
Claim(s): Minors can come to California with out their dad and mom’ consent to obtain gender affirming surgical procedure.
“We’re honoring parents rights when you’re bringing people from out of state to go around their parents backs and getting life-altering surgeries,” DeSantis mentioned, calling it an “assault on their parents’ rights.”
Rating: False.
Explanation: Minors in California can not endure gender-affirming surgical procedures with no guardian’s consent.
California is, as of final yr, a sanctuary state for transgender youth and their households who come for medical care from states the place gender-affirming providers are criminalized. Meanwhile a Florida regulation signed by DeSantis this yr closely restricts gender-affirming care, banning it for minors.
The Bee’s Andrew Sheeler contributed to this story.
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