Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) responded to fellow 2024 Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley‘s claim that he was hypocritical for accepting donations from Disney and now going after the company.
DeSantis called Haley’s claims that he has a “vendetta” against Disney “utterly bizarre.” His comments came while speaking on Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade Show on Monday.
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DESANTIS on other Republicans siding with Disney:
“As a parent of three young kids – we are going to fight the sexualization of minors.”
“You can’t just be a lackey for corporate America … The days of Republicans just deferring to large corporations need to be OVER.” pic.twitter.com/nJMGQnT9BB
— DeSantis War Room ? (@DeSantisWarRoom) June 5, 2023
“How utterly bizarre. I mean, somebody does a campaign contribution you’re supposed to lay down for them. That’s not how I operate. People can support me or not support me. I call them as I see them. And if you’ve supported me, but you’re wrong, I’m going to do what’s right,” DeSantis said.
He also rebuked Haley’s allegation that he gave out subsidies to Disney, pointing out that the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which encompasses the Walt Disney World Resort, was created in the 1960s before he came into office. He also corrected Haley’s comments and said that he is being sued by Disney, rather than him suing Disney, and vowed that he will win the lawsuit.
“At the end of the day, [as] the parent of three young kids, we are going to fight the sexualization of minors and children. We are going to fight anybody that’s trying to rob them of their innocence. And we are not going to compromise,” DeSantis said.
“Whether that’s standing up to a big 800-pound gorilla like Disney or anybody else, we’re going to stand with the children. And I think our voters want to see that because they understand raising kids nowadays is difficult,” he added.
During her town hall on Sunday night, Haley said DeSantis was wasting time and taxpayer money on a “vendetta” against Disney.
Nikki Haley called out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for what she characterized as wasting time and money on a personal “vendetta” against Disney. https://t.co/Fxy8RTBnQ5 pic.twitter.com/bYRufyoRPy
— CNN (@CNN) June 5, 2023
“So, here you have DeSantis, who accepted 50,000 and political contributions from Disney. He went and put their executives and their lobbyists on prominent boards throughout Florida, and he went and basically gave the highest corporate subsidies in Florida history to Disney. But because they went and criticized him, now he’s going to spend taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit. It’s just like all this vendetta stuff. We’ve been down that road again,” Haley said.
DeSantis is currently facing a lawsuit brought by Disney in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in April, arguing DeSantis and other Sunshine State officials had pursued a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain State officials.”
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The feud between DeSantis and the company, which led to Disney’s central Florida district being restructured, stemmed from Disney denouncing the Parental Rights in Education Act, which DeSantis signed last year. Disney had previously maintained full autonomy over the district since its creation in 1967.
DeSantis is currently polling in second place in the Republican presidential primary. He’s behind former President Donald Trump, and Haley is in a distant third, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
