Florida’s Senior Senator is wondering if Ron DeSantis is going too far in his fight with The Walt Disney Co.
Marco Rubio is raising concerns about a potentially “problematic” precedent in the ongoing war between the Florida Governor and the entertainment giant.
While the Senator stopped short of opposing the ongoing offensive against the company, he made it clear on “Fox & Friends” that the state could be going down a slippery slope.
“I think where it gets problematic in the eyes of some people is when you start creating the idea — and I’m not saying we’re there yet as a state — but 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,” Rubio said.
The Senator suggested that this could chill the state’s business environment.
“I do worry that if this happens too many times, businesses that are thinking about coming to Florida are saying maybe we don’t want to go there because if we get into a firestorm with them politically, they’re going to come after our business again,” Rubio added, saying that’s still a “hypothetical issue.”
Rubio initially distanced himself from that “problematic” proposition.
“I don’t have a problem with taking on Disney. I think the fundamental question here is what we’re trying to fix is the fact that Disney had some arrangement that gave them governmental type powers. I think it’s a perfectly legitimate thing,” Rubio said.
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.”
The Governor is leaning into the fight, saying the former Reedy Creek Improvement District was “not good for Florida” during his current overseas trade mission, his first remarks since the suit.
However, he has threatened to take more liberties with the company.
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 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 a quip about building a prison. “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.”
While the Tomorrowland Gulag is not currently in process, other moves to lock the company down are in play in Tallahassee. Legislation that would allow state officials to perform safety checks on Disney World’s monorail is live in the waning days of Session, after DeSantis warned that could be on the rails before Sine Die.
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Gabrielle Russon of Florida Politics contributed to this report.
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