California Congressman Kevin Kiley Fact Check Following The Newsom And DeSantis Debate

California Congressman Kevin Kiley Delivers Brutal Fact Check Following The Newsom And DeSantis Debate 

During remarks on the House floor, Rep. Kevin Kiley(R-CA) delivered a fact check of Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D-CA) claims from Thursday night's debate with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).

debate between the governors of California
(Gavin Newsom) and Florida (Ron DeSantis)

Summary

Kevin Kiley, a representative from California, gave this speech in response to a televised debate between the governors of California (Gavin Newsom) and Florida (Ron DeSantis). The representative argues that Governor Newsom presented a misleading and false characterization of life in California during the debate.

Key points:

1. California has the highest out-migration rate in the country, with people leaving the state in record numbers.
2. California had the most draconian and longest-lasting COVID-19 lockdowns, which caused significant harm to businesses, students, and personal freedoms.
3. Homelessness in California has worsened despite increased spending, with half of all unsheltered homeless in the country living in the state.
4. California's education system is underperforming, with low literacy rates and poor student achievement, despite high per-pupil spending.
5. The state has the highest gas prices and taxes in the country, leading to a high cost of living and low wage growth for the working class.
6. California has a massive budget deficit, while Florida has a significant surplus.
7. The representative argues that the border crisis is the responsibility of the Biden administration, not Congress, and that Governor Newsom has exacerbated the problem in California.
8. Crime rates in California have increased, with cities experiencing high levels of retail theft and vehicle thefts.
9. The representative claims that California ranks low in personal and economic freedom due to various bans and regulations.

The representative concludes by stating that while California has many positive attributes, the state's current governance model is failing. They highlight their own district as an example of communities fighting against this model and succeeding. The representative encourages viewers to examine the facts closely, as California's failures have the potential to become national failures.

Transcript

Mr. Speaker, last night there was a televised debate between the governor of my state, Gavin Newsom, and the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. It was set up as sort of a comparison of the two states' models of governance and which is the better model for other states and the country to follow. While it is true that Florida has done quite well in any number of areas, really the comparison could have been made between California and virtually any other state in the country because, when it comes to the key metrics of economic performance and quality of life, California is the very worst state in the country. Despite that, we have a governor who went on television and, in fact, has for months, for years now, been trying to claim that California is, in fact, leading the nation. He has said time and time again that California is a model for the nation. He has said the future happens first in California.

Indeed, it is true that the current administration here in Washington has copied any number of California's policies and, in fact, has elevated many of California's officials.

• Julie Su, the acting Secretary of Labor, held that position for Governor Newsom. 
• Of course, Vice President KamalaHarris, 
• the Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra was formerly California's attorney general. 
• Alejandro Mayorkas. [secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security]
• Douglas Parker, the head ofOSHA [formerly head of Cal/OSHA).

So this is a matter of great national concern - to really look at the facts of what has happened in California and what the governor tried to do last night. Governor Newsom, that is, was to present a complete alternative reality using false, misleading, and, in some cases, simply delusional assertions about the true nature of life in California.

California exodus

I wanted to take a moment today to correct some of the misstatements that were made by Gavin Newsom in last night's debate. First, there was a discussion of the California exodus, and the governor refused to acknowledge the fact that people are leaving our state in record numbers. In fact, he even asserted that more people are moving to California than to Florida. Here's the reality: between 2019 and 2022, 1,144,000 people left California while 730,000 people moved to Florida. So many people have been leaving California that the state literally did run out of U-Hauls. In fact, for three straight years, California has led the nation in U-Haul departures.

What is so notable about this is that prior to the Newsom governorship, California had gained population every year since our founding in 1850. We have always been the state that people want to come to, the state where anyone could get ahead. And now we're the state that so many people can't wait to leave behind. It was this just completely abrupt change in trajectory. While California continued to grow, then Governor Newsom took office, and suddenly we are leading the nation in departures. We have the highest out-migration rate in the country.

In fact, it is even more stark when you look at San Francisco, the city that Newsom was the mayor of, the city represented by Congresswoman Pelosi, the city that Vice President Harris is from. This is a city that is on the verge of collapse. Those aren't my words - that's the editorial page of the San Francisco Chronicle. This is a city where businesses are leaving seemingly every day, citing the intolerable conditions in that city. In fact, San Francisco right now is losing residents faster than any major city in United States history. That's right, San Francisco is losing residents faster than even Detroit when Detroit went bankrupt.

So what is Newsom talking about when he actually said on live television that there are more Californians - or more Floridians - going to California than vice versa? [based on carefully chosen statistics he was correct]Well, the reality is that actually it was a very...there you can do a direct comparison. Over 50,000 more people went to Florida than came to California. What Newsom did is very revealing. He said that the rate of Californians per capita moving to Florida is lower than vice versa. But he did an asymmetrical comparison where he used per capita numbers when looking at the state that people are departing from, but used raw, absolute numbers looking at the state that they are going to.

If you were to do it in an asymmetrical - in a symmetrical manner, whichever way you did it, whether you did raw numbers on both sides or per capita numbers on both sides, of course California does much worse. It is, after all, the state that has the highest out-migration rate in the country. But the governor's willingness to go on television and distort the numbers so egregiously, use just this completely nonsensical trick where you make it per capita on one side but not the other, just shows how willing he is to mislead both his own constituents and people throughout our country.

Handling of COVID-19

A second area where major correction is needed is when it comes to the handling of COVID-19. Here's the reality: California had the single most draconian and longest-lasting lockdowns in the country when it came to school shutdowns, business shutdowns, church shutdowns, when it came to mask mandates, vaccine mandates, vaccine passports. Each and every step of the way, California had the highest level of government coercion and control. And yet the governor gets up in last night's debate and says, "No, no, no, Florida was the lockdown state," which, you know, is truly boggling to the mind that he would stand up and, with a straight face, make that assertion.

Yes, it is true that basically every state, right when COVID arrived, did take drastic measures when we didn't know what this was, in those first couple weeks in February and March. But the difference is, some states learned and others did not. Some states looked at the evidence of how best to handle this public health challenge and acted accordingly in an evidence-based manner that placed trust in their citizens, whereas California never learned and continued a state of emergency until 2023.

In fact, if you look at a direct comparison, Newsom last night claimed that Florida shut down schools. But in fact, if you look at the facts, Florida ranked third out of the 50 states in getting kids back to school. Where did California rank? California ranked 50th out of the 50 states in getting kids back to school. We had the longest-lasting school shutdowns in the country, and those harms are going to be with us for a long, long time.

Newsom was saying one thing last night, but just a few weeks ago, he actually admitted...this is a Politico story. He said, "We would have done everything differently" when it came to COVID. He tried to make excuses, he said, "We didn't know what we didn't know." But that's not true. It's not a matter of hindsight being 20/20, because so many other states - in fact, every other state - managed to do a better job.

And here's the truly perverse thing: despite everything California did to take away the rights of its citizens, to shut down beaches, to shut down youth sports, to keep kids out of school (many of whom have not come back, by the way), despite the incalculable damage to our young people, to our businesses, to our democratic institutions, in the name of public health, California wound up with an excess mortality rate exceeding the national average, even though we had the benefit of a relatively young population.

That's why the recent Lancet study actually says California had one of the highest standardized COVID mortality rates in the entire country. And yet Newsom, of course, ignores that. He simply accuses Florida of having tens of thousands of lives die unnecessarily, completely ignoring the actual facts of the situation.

The reality is, having lived through Newsom's one-man rule in California, at every turn, the governor prioritized getting himself in the headlines and rewarding special interests over the health and well-being of Californians. And this continued for years, and he did not learn. In fact, things got worse as time went on.

Even after he had set the records for how long he was keeping kids out of school, on October 1st, 2021, the governor announced that California was going to be the first state in the nation to impose a student vaccine mandate for COVID-19. It applied to all grade levels, public and private schools alike, with no exceptions for religion and personal belief. He was the first governor to announce such a mandate. He boasted about being the first governor to announce such a mandate. And he wound up being the only governor to announce such a mandate.

At the beginning of this year, he formally withdrew the mandate without it ever going into effect. And even the World Health Organization now says, quote, "COVID vaccines are not needed for healthy kids and teens."

Homelessness

A third issue that came up in last night's debate was homelessness. Newsom claimed that he has spent unprecedented resources on homelessness and gotten 68,000 people off of the streets. Now, the first part is true; the second is preposterous. California has spent $12 billion on homelessness over the last 5 years, and the problem has gotten worse. We spent all that money, and it's gotten worse. In recent years, homelessness in California has increased 15 times faster than the country as a whole. Half of all the unsheltered homeless in the whole country now live in California.

Newsom himself acknowledged that Californians are, quote, "wondering where the heck all their tax dollars are going." And if you want to do a direct comparison, the federal government has counted over 171,000 homeless in California last year versus 25,000 in Florida. Newsom himself even said, when he was in Los Angeles recently, that it looked like a "third world country." And San Francisco, frankly, is much worse, with the one exception of a couple weeks ago when the president of China came to town, where there was the APEC conference with world leaders in San Francisco.

The New York Times wrote a story talking about the makeover and beautification efforts that were hastily undertaken. The Times article says, "San Francisco had the air this week of teenagers frantically cleaning up after a house party with their parents on the way." The Times continues, "Perhaps the most obvious change has been seen at the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building. For 2 years, people regularly use drugs in an adjacent alley. Most have seemingly disappeared in a poof."

The Times reported that San Francisco added more than 200 beds in its shelter system just for the arrival of President Xi from China. And it notes, "Some residents have wondered why San Francisco has been able to fix its notorious problem for the president of China, but not for them."

Education

A fourth issue that came up in the debate was education, and Newsom tried to claim that California is outperforming Florida. He cites fourth grade reading, he cites eighth grade math. Here's the reality: number one, California spends a lot more money than other states. California spends 45% more per pupil on K-12 education than Florida does. And what do we get in return for that money? California has the lowest literacy rate in the country. There are 800 California schools where 75% of students do not read at grade level. California's most recent eighth grade reading scores are the worst of any state in the country that was measured. Our fourth grade reading scores are third worst in the country.

Which is why it was unbelievable to me when, last night, Newsom asserted that our eighth grade reading scores are somehow indicative of good leadership when we literally have the worst eighth grade reading scores in the country. Poor students fare worst of all in California's education system. California has ranked 49th out of the 50 states in achievement for students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch.

Gas Prices

The issue of gas prices also came up last night, and Newsom tried to say that Californians are being ripped off. And I agree with him on that - Californians are being ripped off. But he said it's that we're being ripped off by the oil companies. The reality is that California has, by far, the highest gas prices of any state in the country. Right now, gas prices in California are $1.58 above the national average. So if the oil companies are ripping us off, why are they ripping us off so much more in California than any other state?

The reason gas prices are so much higher in California is...there's a few reasons, but primarily that we have the highest gas tax in the country. We have all kinds of regulations and fees that add much more to the price of each gallon. So the reality is that we are getting ripped off, but we're getting ripped off by our own government.

And by the way, what do we get in return for this, for paying the highest taxes on gas in the country, money that's supposed to be going to transportation? California generally ranks as having about the second or third worst roads of any state in the country, which people will be sure to tell you if you drive through California for any reasonable stretch of time. That is the sad reality of Gavin Newsom's California: highest taxes, deepest potholes. We sacrifice the most and get the least in return.

Taxes

The issue of taxes also came up last night, and Newsom tried to somehow slice and dice the data to say that California, for certain people, has a lower tax burden than Florida does. The reality is this: California has the highest income tax in the country, the highest gas tax in the country. When you look at the overall tax burden in California, total taxes are $10,167 per person. In Florida, it's about half that, $5,746.

Workers

But Newsom wanted to talk about the working class. Well, here's the reality of life in California for the working class: California has the third highest cost of living in the country, California has by far the highest gas prices in the country thanks to an extremely regressive set of taxes, California has the third worst inequality in the country, California has the highest poverty rate in the country, California leads the nation in the "real" poverty rate.

And last year, California had the lowest wage growth in the country. Wages went up less in California for workers than any state in the country, which is why the California exodus, when you think of all the people leaving, it's not just people who are well off, who want to escape the very high income tax rates. It's actually working people who just cannot afford to get by in our state, who are not allowed to pursue their career, who are unable to buy a home because of the skyrocketing home prices. That is the reality of life in California under Gavin Newsom.

Economy

There was also discussion of the economy, both nationally and in California, and Newsom said something very interesting. He said that the nation's current unemployment rate is a sign of a booming economy. He said the unemployment rate is pretty low nationally, and so that's the link that he drew, is low unemployment rate, good economic stewardship.

So the first response to that is that that is a mirage on a national level, given that the workforce participation rate has gone down significantly. Any small business owner will tell you that they're still, to this day, having a very hard time getting workers.

But if we take Newsom at his word, that a low unemployment rate is a sign of good leadership, well then we can look at California's unemployment rate to assess his leadership. And as it turns out, California has the second highest unemployment rate in the entire country.

If you want to do a direct comparison between California and Florida, just to pick one example, since January of 2019, employment has increased by over a million - 1,131,000 - in Florida. It's declined by 85,000 in California. And if you ask Californians themselves how they think the economy is doing, 71% of Californians expect bad times economically over the course of the next 12 months. 71% - that is a majority of Democrats, Republicans, and independents - believe the economy is on the wrong track and expect things are going to get worse in California.

And a final point...you know, the governor was just a few months ago boasting about how California had had a surplus the last couple years. And now that was again a great sign of positive governance, of economic stewardship. Well, you didn't hear him mention that last night. And the reason why is that California has a massive deficit right now, a $31.5 billion deficit, which is out of step with what's happening...last year, right now, Florida has a $17.7 billion surplus.

Immigration and the Border

Now, he came to immigration and the border. Governor Newsom made a truly outlandish claim. He said that it is Congress, and not President Biden, that is responsible for the border crisis. Let's just look at the basic facts: from 2014 until the beginning of the Biden administration, there were only four months through that whole span of six plus years that had more than 100,000 encounters along the southern border. So only 4 months out of all those months for six years where there were more than 100,000 encounters at the border.

Under the Biden administration, there were 29 straight months with more than 100,000 border encounters. So if you ask what changed between one adminis- between the time before Biden took office and the time that he did take office, it wasn't Congress. The president had a Democrat Senate and a Democrat House for the first two years of his administration. And the total numbers now is, we have had 6.4 million illegal crossings at the southern border. There have also been 1.7 million known "gotaways."

In fiscal year 2021, this administration set a record for illegal border crossings. In fiscal year 2022, the administration broke that record. In fiscal year 2023, the administration broke that record. And this is another area where Newsom's tendency to grasp for some distorted factoid and paint a completely alternate picture of reality was on display.

Because when he did his initial interview with Hannity in June of 2023, Newsom said, "No, no, no, Biden is doing a great job at the border. Just look, this month illegal crossings are down 70%." There happened to be a blip in June. Well, you didn't hear him use that talking point last night, and why is that? Because in the subsequent months, illegal border crossings have been off the charts. And in September of this year, we set an all-time record for a single month.

I want to read to you something that Newsom said in 2018. Newsom said, quote, "Let me be clear: California is a sanctuary state." That's what he said. "Let me be clear: California is a sanctuary state." He said, "We have defied and resisted the Trump administration's policies at every turn," and he said, "We will do it again." Newsom even signed a law closing ICE detention facilities that was overturned by the 9th Circuit as unconstitutional.

So the evidence is extremely clear that we have a crisis at the southern border, that this administration has refused to take the actions that are necessary to address it, that as governor, Newsom has made the situation worse in our own state. And for him to now blame Congress or to blame the House specifically is beyond belief, when in the House we passed the Border Security Act earlier this year, the most robust border security bill that has passed the House in a long, long time, maybe ever, which would make a huge difference in the crisis at the border, which is contributing to the fentanyl crisis, to human trafficking, and is introducing potential national security and terror threats into our country.

In the House of Representatives, we passed that bill. What has happened since? It has been gathering dust on Chuck Schumer's desk in the Senate. And it is well past time for action on this issue.

Crime

The ninth area where the governor completely misled in last night's debate was when it came to crime. He said crime is down in California. In fact, FBI data shows violent crime in California increased 13% the last few years as it's gone down across the country. California cities have seen an epidemic of retail theft. In San Francisco this year, a string of high-profile businesses - Whole Foods, Nordstrom, H&M - have left the city, and they've basically all cited the crime problem as the reason. In Los Angeles, police have advised residents not to go outside wearing jewelry.

In fact, if you want to do a direct comparison between Florida and California when it comes to crime, there were a few figures cited in the debate last night. One that's very interesting, it's very telling, is when it comes to motor vehicle thefts. Now why is this telling? Because in California, a lot of the crime doesn't even go reported because it won't be prosecuted. We have all these laws that have basically legalized retail theft, legalized open air drug use, like Prop 47. We have other laws like Prop 57 that have downgraded a lot of offenses. We have cities that have defunded police. We have these so-called "progressive prosecutors" like George Gascon, who Newsom initially appointed as DA of San Francisco, who refuse to prosecute even those crimes, for those laws that are on the books.

So you have businesses that will be robbed in broad daylight, and they'll just let the people go, and they won't bother to file a police report because they know that nothing is going to happen. So you can't actually look at reported crimes as an accurate gauge of how much criminal activity there is. But when it comes to vehicle thefts, that's different, because there's usually an insurance claim. And so we get realistic, accurate numbers when it comes to motor vehicle theft.

So how does that compare? In 2022, reported vehicle thefts per capita was 250% higher in California than it was in Florida - 250% higher. And that'll be no surprise to anyone who's been to San Francisco. The advice often is, you should roll down your windows when you leave your car parked, so that at least they won't break them when they're trying to break in.

Freedom

Finally, I want to mention one final issue, the 10th and final issue - and though there are certainly plenty of others - where the governor of our state gave a completely false and misleading characterization of what life is like in California. And that is on the issue of personal freedom. The governor called California the "freedom state." But the Cato Institute rankings of freedom in the 50 states rank California as the 48th most free state. Florida ranked second out of the 50 states.

Just look at what happened, of course, during the COVID lockdowns, where California had the highest measure of government control, the least measure of personal choice and freedom. But it began long before that. California has, every year, continued to erode the rights and freedoms of its residents.

When it comes to economic freedom, for example, Newsom signed into law AB5, which has deprived countless people of their right to earn a living, effectively abolishing independent contracting for many professions in California. And now his former labor secretary, Julie Su, is trying to do the same thing through the regulatory process here in Washington, DC.

Or just look at things like...bans on straws, bans on gas-powered leaf blowers, bans on chopsticks and other single-use food items, bans on even gas-powered vehicles by 2035, if Gavin Newsom has his way. Every day in California, we wake up wondering what is going to be banned next. And for Newsom to somehow claim we are the "freedom state" is a delusion of the highest order.

I want to close by making this point though, Mr. Speaker, which is that California, I believe, is the greatest state in the country. It's the state where everyone was always wanted to come to. We have everything to offer, and there are still...there are so many great things about our state. Our amazing people and diversity and cultures and world-leading companies in California, we have great universities in our state as well. We have so many great things going.

And we still have parts of our state that people are moving to and want to live in, specifically my district. My district is one of the few parts of California that is growing right now. In fact, while the state as a whole has for three straight years led the nation in U-Haul departures, the largest city in my district, Roseville, last year was second in the nation in U-Haul arrivals.

And so why is it that people are moving to our area while they're leaving other parts of California? Well, the reason is that we have fought against the failed governance model that Gavin Newsom has tried to impose on the state as a whole, and that is in an especially advanced stage in places like San Francisco.

During the COVID years, we fought in every way we could to allow our communities to follow the evidence and allow citizens to live their lives as they saw fit. We ended up getting our kids back to school sooner than any other part of California. We ended up having an unemployment rate in Placer County, for example, that was about half the rest of the state.

And what was the result of that? We actually ended up having way better COVID-19 outcomes than the state as a whole, because we focused on the things that would actually make a difference on disease control rather than population control, rather than gratuitously taking away the personal freedoms of our residents.

But even before COVID, and now after, at least as we've moved away from that paradigm, we continue to try to chart a different course than California as a whole has taken. We support small businesses in our community rather than attacking them. We support law enforcement in our communities rather than defunding police, and rather than contributing to a false and misleading negative narrative about our law enforcement. We have led the entire nation in going after fentanyl dealers and charging them with murder, so we don't have more of our kids continuing to get victimized.

So when Gavin Newsom says California is a model for the nation, nothing could be further from the truth. But I am very proud to represent communities that do represent a model for how California as a whole can once again become the Golden State.

So I would just encourage everyone who watched the debate last night to take a close look at the facts, because there is an increasing tendency for California's failures to become national failures. And as a representative from California, I will be fighting in every way I can to make sure that that doesn't happen.

Thank you, and I yield back.