Ron DeSantis visits Gavin Newsom’s hometown: ‘once great’ SF is ‘not vibrant anymore’

Florida Governor and Republican presidential contender Ron DeSantis, in California on a campaign fundraising swing, posted a dispatch Tuesday from sparring partner Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hometown of San Francisco.

Standing in front a graffiti-covered wall, DeSantis lamented the state of the city to his followers on Twitter.

“The city is not vibrant anymore,” he says in the video.

On a tour of the “once great city,” DeSantis claims to witness people defecating in the street and using heroin and crack cocaine.

San Francisco “has really collapsed because of leftist policies,” he says. “These policies have caused people to flee this area, they don’t prosecute criminals like they do in most parts of the country, and the wreckage really, really been sad to see.”

The “businesses boarded up” and “riff-raff just running around” are why DeSantis believes so many people have left San Francisco for the greener pastures of his state.

“We need to restore sanity to this country,” he says at the end of the video, which fades out over the sound of sirens playing in the background.

DeSantis visited San Francisco following his Sacramento fundraising event on Monday, where tickets for the breakfast roundtable ran at $3,330. Assemblyman Joe Patterson, who attended the fundraiser and is considering endorsing DeSantis, told KCRA that the GOP presidential hopeful “had a lot of energy,” and spoke about his response to the COVID-19 pandemic compared to Newsom.

Longshot Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running to replace President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. Kennedy was also in San Francisco last week, and made several stops in the Bay Area to similarly mourn the state of the city.

“This wonderful energy that San Francisco used to have is dwindling,” Kennedy said. “The light is dimming and it needs to be turned on again.”

The Bee is seeking comment from Mayor London Breed’s office.