The most powerful Republican in Congress is speaking out against Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ war with The Walt Disney Co., which includes threats of a prison near Disney World.
On CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California urged DeSantis to find a productive solution, specifically mentioning the Governor’s prison threat as unhelpful.
“This is a big employer inside Florida,” he added, in comments reported by Newsweek.
“I think the Governor should sit down with them. I don’t think the idea of building a prison next to a place that you bring your family is the best idea. I think it’d be much better if you sat down and solved the problems,” McCarthy continued.
Earlier this month, when discussing new legislation to wrestle control back from Disney, the Florida Governor suggested the state had every right to do what it wanted on land in the former Reedy Creek Improvement District, which is now known as the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.
“People are like, well, ‘What should we do with this land? Maybe create a state park? Maybe try to do more amusement parks,’” DeSantis said, before adding the prison quip. “Somebody even said, ‘Maybe you need another state prison?’ Who knows? I just think that the possibilities are endless, and so that is now going to be analyzed to see what would make the most sense.”
The Governor has been compelled to address the issue on his current international trip.
“That arrangement was not good for the state of Florida. We did not think that that should continue. “So we now have brought accountability. And so the idea that somehow being pro-business means giving companies their own governments, that is not what a free market is all about,” DeSantis said in Jerusalem Thursday.
The Disney/DeSantis beef is in federal court, with the company seeking legal recourse for the state’s moves to invalidate its development deal struck in the final days of the Reedy Creek Improvement District that governed the park’s business from 1967 until this year. The company calls it a “targeted campaign of government retaliation.”
Criticisms of the Governor’s overreach come even from in-state allies.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is raising concerns about a potentially “problematic” precedent set “the idea that somehow like if you run crossways with us politically, whoever is in charge, then you know, you wind up in the crosshairs of the Legislature for political purposes.”
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