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Pence says DeSantis move against Disney was ‘beyond the scope’ of what he’d ‘be prepared to do’

February 24, 2023 | | Print Article

If former Vice President Mike Pence is serious about making a run for the White House, he’d do well to take some lessons in reading the room before going after one of the most popular Republican leaders in the nation.

Speaking Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Pence said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis went further in his war with Disney than he “would be prepared to do” as a conservative.

(Video: CNBC)

The remark was met with immediate backlash, with actual conservatives claiming it is exactly that kind of RINO thinking that got our country in its current mess.

As BizPac Review reported, DeSantis declared earlier this month that “there’s a new sheriff in town” and “Disney’s going to pay its debt.”

At issue was Walt Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, which, since 1967, had been acting as a self-governing tax district in Orlando.

“What I said really for the last six/nine months is: Disney is no longer going to have self-government,” DeSantis told reporters as the state’s House Bill 9B, which gave the governor the ability to rename the Reedy Creek Improvement District to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and appoint the board’s five members, passed its first committee with bipartisan support. “They’re not going to have their own government. Disney is gonna pay their fair share of taxes and honor their debts. And that’s exactly what this proposed piece of legislation will do.”

“Squawk Box” host Andrew Ross Sorkin called the move “retribution” for Disney’s very vocal opposition to DeSantis’s Parental Rights in Education law and claimed the governor was guilty of using “his political power to cancel them.”

Asked for his thoughts, Pence hedged, praising DeSantis for protecting kids and their parents while claiming his move against Reedy Creek went against the notion of a “limited government.”

“I fully supported Florida’s initiative to protect kids and protect parental rights,” Pence told Sorkin. “I was just in Iowa last week where literally there’s a school, the landmark community school will allow a student to get a gender transition plan without parental notification or approval.”

“So I fully support what Florida did about protecting kids under the third grade,” he said. “But I have concerns about the follow-on.”

But going after Disney’s money was just a step too far for the former veep.

“Look, Disney stepped into the fray,” Pence said. “They lost. … But the idea to go after their taxing authority, I — you know, that was, that was beyond the scope of what I, as a conservative, limited government Republican, would be prepared to do.”

And that, Twitter conservatives say, is the problem with Mike Pence.

“Oh yeah @Mike_Pence because it’s so darn conservative to give Disney their own special tax authority AND let them walk all over our values,” conservative commentator Robby Starbuck shot back. “Great way to conserve those values right? I mean, you know what? Instead of punishing them let’s give them more tax breaks!”

“Out of touch,” Starbuck stated with disgust.

“This weak mindset is what got us to where we are today,” tweeted the popular End Wokeness account. “70+ years of losing the culture wars to the left is MORE THAN ENOUGH.”

“The Republican establishment opposes DeSantis’s action to fight against Disney,” noted another Twitter user.

“DeSantis fights for the people, and he should run for president,” the user continued. “We’re not going back to the McCain/Romney/Pence way of doing whatever rich donors want.”

 

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Melissa Fine
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