DeSantis slammed by potential 2024 foes over Disney feud
Emily Jacobs
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Two Republican presidential candidates criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) over his public legal battle with Disney as rumors about the governor’s 2024 plans swirl.
The Florida governor has remained tight-lipped about his 2024 plans and is not expected to make an announcement before the conclusion of the state’s legislative session, which ends in May. A growing chorus of DeSantis allies have said in that the governor plans to launch his White House bid sometime this summer.
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Despite being beset by plummeting poll numbers since former President Donald Trump’s Manhattan indictment in late March, DeSantis has maintained his status as the former president’s top competitor. As a result, he’s become a target of his potential 2024 foes.
Biotech entrepeneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), both of whom are running in the 2024 GOP primary, slammed DeSantis’s ongoing feud with Disney, which houses its beloved Walt Disney World theme park in Orlando, Florida.
Disney filed a lawsuit against DeSantis and the state of Florida earlier this month alleging the governor and state lawmakers infringed on the company’s First Amendment rights, the contract and takings clauses in the Constitution, and its right to due process under the 14th Amendment. The suit also alleged that DeSantis and other officials a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain State officials.”
The Florida governor and the entertainment giant have been trading jabs at each other for more than a year. The feud stems back to the state’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which former Disney CEO Bob Chapek spoke out against. DeSantis has been working to take control of the special district encompassing the Walt Disney World Resort but has faced some roadblocks as Disney has fought to maintain its autonomy.
“Here’s where Ron DeSantis really lost it here. He’s gone on the wrong path as he claimed — and this part actually sounded good to me — Disney should have never had crony-capitalist, lobbying-related privileges in the first place,” Ramaswamy said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Here’s the part he doesn’t mention: one of those crony-capitalist privileges was — and I think the most relevant one — was codified into law by none other than Ron DeSantis in 2021.”
“And so, the irony is Ron DeSantis, who’s now railing against crony capitalism and rolling that back, was the one who actually passed that into law for the case of Disney,” he continued. “So, I think that undermines the credibility of his crusade. I prefer to get to root causes rather than doing political stunts.”
Hutchinson argued that DeSantis’s Disney pursuits were putting conservative businesses in blue states at risk of similar retaliation. He also pointed out the irony of a self-proclaimed conservative pushing back on the actions of a private company.
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“I don’t like what Disney said about the legislation that I would have supported in Florida, but it’s not the role of government to punish a business when you disagree with what they’re saying or a position that they take,” Hutchinson told CNN’s State of the Union. “If that was the view of a Republican, then we’re going to be in all kinds of trouble in our businesses in blue states if they start punishing businesses for taking a more conservative speech or position.”
“I don’t understand a conservative punishing a business that’s the largest employer in the state,” he added. “We support our industry because it provides jobs. And we’re not dictating to them what their speech is. To me, that’s a conservative position. And you err when you go otherwise.”