News/Commentary

‘Got too cute by half’: DeSantis says Disney hasn’t ‘made a peep’ about ‘woke’ issues since Fla fought back

May 6, 2023 | | Print Article

While the culture war rages on in America, you may have noticed that the Walt Disney Company has been silent on “woke” issues lately, and Ron DeSantis isn’t too shy to brag about it.

The Florida governor sat down with Newsmax host John Bachman for an interview that aired on Friday and, after a year of battling the media giant, took an unapologetic victory lap.


(Video: YouTube)

“Since our skirmish last year, Disney has not been involved in any of those issues,” DeSantis said. “They have not made a peep. That ultimately is the most important – that Disney is not allowed to pervert the system to the detriment of Floridians.”

The feud between DeSantis and Disney famously started over the governor’s Parental Rights in Education bill — disingenuously dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by his critics. The legislation, which was ultimately signed into law, sought to prevent the discussion of gender fluidity and sexual identity in Kindergarten through third-grade classrooms.

When Disney didn’t oppose the legislation to the LGBTQ+ community’s liking, its employees revolted, forcing the company to take a hard virtue-signaling stand.

ADVERTISEMENT

In response, DeSantis ended Disney’s longstanding self-governing privileges in the Reedy Creek Improvement District, appointing his own directors to the board and renaming the district the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

But in a sneaky move, the old board attempted to turn over all its power to the Walt Disney Co. before the new board could take over, essentially stripping DeSantis’s members of any power.

Undeterred, DeSantis signed into law legislation that gives his board the power to end the self-governance deal once and for all, Newsmax reports.

“You can’t have a situation where the legislature has spoken and one company just decides to contract out against the will of the people,” DeSantis told Bachman. “At the end of the day, they just have to understand the party is over for them.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“First, the big issue with Disney was they exercised a lot of political influence in this town,” he explained. “And they tried to fight us on things like parents’ rights and things that are really important to the people of Florida. We beat them on that. We signed a parents’ rights bill and we’ve expanded protections and we’ve done a lot of stuff to go back and fight woke ideology.”

According to DeSantis, Disney overplayed their hand.

“These development agreements under Florida law are subject to revocation, so I think they got too cute by half,” he said. “I think we’ll end up winning that legal fight. Disney should not govern itself. They should be held accountable.”

The governor dismissed Disney’s “First Amendment” countersuit.

“Why should one corporation govern itself, be exempt from laws?” he asked. “It’s like the most egregious type of corporate welfare you can believe. So we said no. Clearly, you do not have a First Amendment right to corporate welfare.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Disney, DeSantis said, failed to live up to its original agreement with Florida.

“When that deal was done, it was done that way because Disney promised to build communities and actually build cities where people would be able to live and work, and they never followed through on that promise,” he stated.

Melissa Fine
Latest posts by Melissa Fine (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles