Former George W. Bush official and current Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer has given his assessment of Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Thursday debate performance against California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom after the two squared off on host Sean Hannity’s program.

Essentially, Fleischer gave the 2024 GOP presidential contender high marks against Newsom but said he did not do anything to close the yawning gap between the party’s current primary leader, former President Donald Trump.

“I think watching this, you realize Democrats are from Mars, and Republicans are from Venus. They speak totally different languages,” Fleischer said in his post-debate synopsis. “Ron DeSantis’ language was one of economics, the lockdowns in California, it was very practical, very focused on people’s daily lives, the rise in cost of living.

“If you listen to Gavin Newsom, his whole message was identity politics, which is the language of the Democrats,” Fleischer continued. “I don’t like the way you talk about migrants. We have to fight for women. Everything he says is about an ethnic group, a chunk of Americans. It is not about America. And that is the language the Democrats respond to.

“So you really have two different approaches for what America needs,” he said. “I will say this. Gavin Newsom is much more articulate and sharper than Joe Biden, and if I’m a Democrat looking at the presidential race, even if I dismiss Ron DeSantis, I have to worry about Joe Biden.

“If that is a difference of just Biden’s age, as you pointed that out, the final thing I was about the sentence, I don’t think that he closed the gap with Donald Trump tonight. It was a nice night for him, and he did well, and he has the facts on his side, but when you look at the purpose of him being there, which is to win a presidential race, I don’t think he closed the gap,” Fleischer concluded.