Ron DeSantis Waves 'Poop Map' In Gavin Newsom's Face, Prompting Cheers From Supporters And Exhaustion From Others

Last night, a debate between California Governor Gavin Newsom and Republican Governor / Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis saw the two politicians square off in a segment hosted by Fox News' Sean Hannity during the network's "Great Red vs. Blue State State Debate."

The debate may have passed under the radar for all but the most hardcore politics enthusiasts – Newsom, after all, isn't running for President and DeSantis' chances of becoming the Republican nominee for President look pretty slim – and were it not for a particular moment in the proceedings last night, much of social media may not have known it happened at all.

However, DeSantis was able to break through the "politics" bubble and into broader social media thanks to pulling out a "map of poop."

DeSantis holds up a map to Newsom that people use to know where poop is on the streets of San Francisco and then points out that he cleaned it up for Xi Jinping pic.twitter.com/6Ha5qhZfmA

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 1, 2023

While Newsom was firing barbs at the mental health system in Florida, DeSantis fired back with a prepared prop showing every place where feces was reported to be seen on the street in San Francisco for the past 10 years.

The prop was part of a larger criticism of Newsom that he "cleaned up" the city ahead of the arrival of Xi Jinping and other Asian leaders ahead of the city's APEC conference.

The "poop map" was first published by Forbes in 2019 and has since been used to criticize the city by many conservative commentators.

Newsom chuckled at the prop but did not get a chance to rebut, as the debate moved to another topic after DeSantis' stunt.

The "poop map" incident galvanized DeSantis supporters, who claimed it crushed Newsom's (again, nonexistent) 2024 Presidential aspirations, while more left-leaning users found it a childish stunt.

Of course, DeSantis has himself been the target of similar, prop-based insults, though these have tended to come from his rival Donald Trump.

Trump has directly mocked DeSantis for supposedly wearing high heels, and his campaign once made a pretty gross ad reminding supporters of a story in which DeSantis once purportedly ate a pudding cup with his fingers.