Nikki Haley is advising Ron DeSantis to talk through his ongoing conflict with The Walt Disney Co.
In comments to reporter David Brody, the former South Carolina Governor and current presidential candidate urged DeSantis to “hash this out” with the company.
“Pick up the phone, meet with the executives, hash this out in a back room and get back to the normal life of business for Floridians. Because at the end of the day, businesses are our partners,” Haley said. “You hear them out and then you hash it out and you put it away. You don’t have it play out in terms of lawsuits and taxpayer dollars.”
Haley noted that prior to the falling out between DeSantis and Disney over the Parental Rights in Education legislation, the relationship was strong.
“DeSantis took $50,000 worth of contributions from Disney. Prior to today, he took their executives and lobbyists and put them on prominent state boards. He passed the largest corporate subsidies in Florida history for Disney in Florida right before this. So suddenly they criticize you and you’re gonna have thin skin and do a lawsuit,” Haley said.
Haley has leaned into this issue previously. Her Stand For America PAC calls on DeSantis to “return the more than $100,000 his campaign and affiliated PACs have taken from Disney over the years.”
The PAC attacks go both ways. Never Back Down recently launched a six-figure digital ad buy slamming “Mickey Haley” in the wake of the former Palmetto State Governor’s pitch to the company, made Wednesday on Fox News, to move to the state.
Meanwhile, DeSantis and Disney have dueling legal actions.
The Governor signed legislation changing Disney’s special district in the wake of the company opposing 2022’s Parental Rights in Education law, leading to Disney filing a federal lawsuit against DeSantis and other state parties for a “targeted campaign of government retaliation.” DeSantis signed more legislation Friday revoking deals Disney made before the Reedy Creek Improvement District dissolved.
The state-appointed Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board that replaced Reedy Creek plans to countersue Disney in state court. And the state is ready to inspect Disney’s monorail in another punitive measure.
As reported previously, the Governor has not talked to Disney CEO Bob Iger. He told Newsmax Friday that the “party is over” for the company.
“The way I viewed it was, we had the skirmish last year. We said no self-government. We implemented that consistent with what I said in the campaign. They’re not going to have their own government,” DeSantis said.
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