Newsom camp: Hannity, DeSantis cheated. They dispute the charges.

ALPHARETTA, Georgia — So much for that Newsom-Hannity bromance.

Thursday’s raucous debate is giving way to bitter disappointment with and outright hostility toward Fox News and its host from the California Democrat’s camp.

Before Ron DeSantis could unveil his “poop map,” Gov. Gavin Newsom team’s frustration with Sean Hannity and his crew centered on his promises to them that he would be a fair moderator, only to repeatedly sandbag the governor and give the entire affair a 2-on-1 dynamic — as they saw it.

“The debate was rigged, and Newsom still won,” Newsom adviser Sean Clegg said.

Newsom himself told people as the debate ended that he’d had fun — sharing that feeling on X where he added that he could have kept going for longer.

But the grievances from Newsom’s team inside the venue were just the start of the mass finger-pointing that followed the 95-minute melee late Thursday in the suburbs of Atlanta. Other alleged violations — of rules both written and understood — involve Ron DeSantis, the Republican Florida governor.

A DeSantis aide said California first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom was the one who stepped in and ended the debate on her husband’s behalf after Hannity invited the two governors to go deeper into overtime. A second person on the ground confirmed that.

"Gavin Newsom got beat so badly last night his wife literally had to throw in the towel for him. It was embarrassing,” DeSantis spokesperson Andrew Romeo said.

An aide to Newsom who was in the room pushed back, saying both sides expressed a desire to go home after 95 minutes of TV mayhem.

“Ron didn’t want to do the debate anymore, either. Everyone shook hands and left,” said the Newsom aide, who was granted anonymity to relay closed-door exchanges.

DeSantis’ team said he would have wanted to continue debating, however, for as long as two hours — maybe even three hours.

More distrust and accusations were spilling out from the event. Hannity told Newsom staffers that both sides agreed not to bring props or graphics with them on stage — just a pen and pad of paper, they said. DeSantis’ camp says that wasn’t their understanding of the network’s rules, and DeSantis brandished allegedly lewd content permissible in California in a segment about book bans at schools.

The other document DeSantis flashed to great fanfare was a map of Newsom’s hometown of San Francisco covered in brown splotches that the Florida governor said represented places where human feces were found on the city’s streets.

“He carried around porn and poop in his suit jacket,” the Newsom aide said.

A Fox News spokesperson said “the word ‘props’ was never discussed ahead of the debate, not one time. The final agreement simply stated that neither side (Newsom or DeSantis) can use multimedia production. That was an issue about whether each side wanted to do a short production on what makes their individual states great at the start of the debate.”

Newsom’s staff said there also was a rule that Fox and Hannity wouldn’t use multimedia during the debate. They contend that was confirmed to them by Fox producers in the pre-debate walk-through a few hours before the event started. Hannity proceeded to show several graphics on screen — mostly unfavorable statistics about crime and other issues plaguing California. When confronted about the apparent bait-and-switch, a Fox producer shot back that, technically, the entire stage could be classified as multimedia, the Newsom aide said.

The Fox News spokesperson pointed out that Hannity was clear about his plans to use “full screens” and mentioned it numerous times ahead of the debate. On the day of the debate, the Fox spokesperson said, Newsom’s team specifically asked that no video sound bites be used, which was a last-minute request that was accommodated ahead of the debate.

The Florida governor's staff said it was the Democrats who didn't follow rules. A DeSantis aide accused Newsom staff of leaving the greenroom, another purported violation, another person said.

DeSantis staffers then decided to venture out, too.

Newsom’s side tells it differently. In their recounting, several of DeSantis’ aides ahead of the first commercial break — roughly 20 minutes into the debate — lined up near the bathroom. This included Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, who serves as a key political adviser to her husband. Ron DeSantis went over and was seen conversing with his wife. That would be another alleged violation of the rules, they said, that sought to prevent the candidates from getting advice in the middle of the debate.

“She was ready to coach him when his fake bathroom break happened,” the Newsom aide said. “Our guy never left the podium once. He didn't take a bathroom break. We didn’t have any interaction with him the whole debate. He knew the rules and followed them.”

DeSantis is one matter. And post-debate spin is a time-honored tradition of political campaigns.

But there was a personal nature to Newsom’s issues with Hannity because of the way the conservative cable host claimed to be approaching his role and the lengths he had gone over several months to assuage their concerns.

As POLITICO previously reported, Hannity took on much of the negotiating with both Newsom and DeSantis staff given the debate’s importance to him. Newsom had predicted a 2-on-1 dynamic; a point that annoyed Hannity, who publicly and privately pledged fairness. “He needs to get over it,” Hannity said in an interview in the run-up to his debate.

Newsom still had some doubts about Hannity, but the host gave news media interviews where he said he would treat the governors as equals and expressed a genuine fondness for Newsom. The goodwill didn’t last. At one point after the debate, a Newsom adviser pulled a Fox staffer aside and took issue with the way the network conducted itself, said a witness of that exchange, who was granted anonymity to describe the confrontation.

Then there was a final fracas involving Hannity’s teleprompter. Newsom’s team went on record to air the complaint.

Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click said there was a teleprompter in DeSantis’ sight line — stage left — that revealed upcoming topics mid-debate. Newsom apparently didn’t notice it until much later in the evening.

“They promised during the walkthrough it would not be visible,” Click said. “Newsom himself saw it from the stage deep into the debate. A live cheat sheet. Newsom won this debate with both hands tied behind his back.”

The Fox spokesperson denied this, saying neither candidate was able to see any of the debate questions, either before or during the debate.