Ron DeSantis is contending he and his team have “basically moved on” from the controversial feud with The Walt Disney Co., delivering a rhetorical pivot from remarks made over the last year about the Disney-DeSantis beef.
“Look, my wife and I, we got married at Walt Disney World. And so it’s not like we’re opposed. I mean, we’ve appreciated working with them over the years, but I would just say, go back to what you did,” DeSantis said, seemingly referring to the convivial working relationship Florida’s government had with the company before it opposed 2022’s Parental Rights in Education law.
“But where we are today, you know, we basically moved on. They’re suing the state of Florida, they’re going to lose that lawsuit. So what I would say is drop the lawsuit,” the Governor said on CNBC Monday.
Disney claims in a suit filed this spring that the state sought to “weaponize” power against them, choosing to eliminate the state’s special taxing district that it got in 1968 when Florida sought to use the company to catalyze Central Florida development.
The softer tone represents a significant contrast from the Governor’s intransigence in most other comments on the ongoing conflict.
During a July interview on the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, the Florida Governor contended rank-and-file Disney workers are with him and not “‘woke’ executives” — comments he bases on the 2022 election.
“The sad part about it, guys, is when we were having this fight with Disney in 2022, most of the employees in their Orlando area theme parks agreed with us,” DeSantis said, using election results to make his point.
“I won Osceola County for the first time a Republican has done in a generation by 7 (percentage points), which is where the majority of Disney employees live,” he added, though it’s a lie to say most voters in the county work for Disney.
Meanwhile, DeSantis’ Never Back Down super PAC has targeted 2024 presidential race opponents Nikki Haley and Donald Trump with ads saying they caved in to the company’s whims.
Earlier this year, DeSantis said the state had every right to do what it wanted on land in the former Reedy Creek Improvement District, now known as the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. DeSantis has even joked about the state locking criminals up near Disney World.
“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.”
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