Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday challenged his Florida counterpart, Ron DeSantis, to a televised debate, escalating his criticism of Republican governors’ mass transport of migrants to liberal bastions as “reprehensible” and presumably unlawful.

“Hey [DeSantis], clearly you’re struggling, distracted, and busy enjoying politics with individuals’s lives,” Newsom tweeted Friday afternoon. “Since you may have just one overriding want — consideration — let’s take this up & debate. I’ll carry my hair gel. You carry your hairspray. Identify the time earlier than Election Day.”

On Wednesday night, DeSantis despatched a gaggle of round 50 migrants by aircraft to Martha’s Winery, a Massachusetts playground for rich liberals. On Thursday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bused a gaggle of almost 100 migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington, D.C., ramping up a tactic that GOP governors have turned to in latest months to protest unlawful immigration.

“Like thousands and thousands of People, I’ve been horrified on the photographs of migrants being shipped on buses and planes throughout the nation for use as political props,” Newsom stated in a letter Thursday to U.S. Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland, urging the Division of Justice to analyze DeSantis’ actions.

A few of the migrants stated that they had been falsely advised they’d be transported to Boston, the place they may obtain work authorizations, Newsom stated.

When requested in regards to the letter throughout an occasion Friday, DeSantis responded with a quip about Newsom’s hair.

“I believe his hair gel is interfering together with his mind operate,” he stated.

Newsom took the chance to put down his problem to DeSantis, sharing an August tweet through which former CBS Information anchor Dan Moderately raised the concept of a possible prime-time debate between the 2 governors, each considered harboring presidential ambitions.

“Scores I guess can be large. Who would have the braveness to point out up?” stated Moderately, who printed an article Friday calling DeSantis’ and Abbott’s migrant transports “a shameful stunt.”

DeSantis had not responded publicly as of Friday night.

For months, Newsom has made a behavior of contrasting California’s insurance policies with these of Texas and Florida.

This summer season, his reelection marketing campaign ran a tv advert in Florida slamming that state’s restrictive abortion insurance policies and a legislation that forbids instruction about sexual orientation and gender identification in kindergarten by way of third grade.

“I urge all of you residing in Florida to affix the battle, or be a part of us in California, the place we nonetheless consider in freedom — freedom of speech, freedom to decide on, freedom from hate and the liberty to like,” Newsom stated within the advert.

Newsom has repeatedly denied that he’s contemplating a presidential run, however many political watchers are skeptical, particularly as he units his sights on DeSantis, a possible 2024 GOP candidate.