Phil Sears/AP
- Rep. Charlie Crist said Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to be the “king of Florida” after targeting Disney.
- DeSantis signed a bill on Friday stripping Disney of its self-governing status.
- Crist, a Democrat in Congress and former Florida governor, is running for his old job against DeSantis.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to strip Disney of its self-governing status was slammed as a “boneheaded move” by a former Florida governor.
Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, who served as Florida’s governor from 2007 to 2011 as a Republican, criticized DeSantis in a tweet.
“Attacking Disney, threatening to harm our state’s economic powerhouse that creates so many jobs and brings in so many tourism dollars is a boneheaded move however you look at it. Ron’s a threat to our state’s economy and he’s gotta go in November,” Crist said in the tweet on Friday.
In an interview with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Thursday, Crist said DeSantis seems to want to be the “king of Florida,” calling the sitting governor “an angry dude.”
“What he’s trying to do is have a one-man rule of this great state,” Crist told the Sentinel. “This governor seems to really want to centralize all power in himself.”
Crist is running for governor to unseat DeSantis. He was recently endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, The Hill’s Max Greenwood reported.
—Charlie Crist (@CharlieCrist) April 22, 2022
DeSantis signed a bill on Friday to dissolve Walt Disney World of its self-governing capabilities by June 2023. It comes after Disney slammed Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education legislation, dubbed by activists and critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The LGBTQ legislation was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 28 and is set to take effect on July 1. It would, in general, ban discussions of sexuality and gender identity in classrooms from kindergarten to third grade and would allow parents to sue schools if staff members facilitate those conversations.
The day DeSantis signed the bill into law, Disney issued a statement vowing to advocate for the law’s repeal, saying it “should never have passed and should never have been signed into law.”
On Thursday, Crist told the Sentinel that Disney was being “punished” by DeSantis.
“They’re being punished for defying this governor and not living up to what he wanted them to do, to support this law that was so offensive to so many in our state. And this is how he responds?” Crist told the outlet. “That’s not serving with a servant’s heart. That’s wanting to be the king of Florida. Well, he’s not.”
Florida’s Senate Minority Leader Gary Farmer told Insider that DeSantis’ public dispute with Disney is shifting attention from other legislative items on DeSantis’ agenda — namely, the new proposed redistricting map that would give the GOP an edge in the state at the expense of Black voters.
“Governor DeSantis’ attack on Disney was designed to act as a smokescreen for the much more devious original and singular purpose of this special session, the passage of a racist and unconstitutional redistricting plan,” Farmer said.
In a tweet on Thursday, Crist appeared to agree, saying DeSantis’ redistricting plan “silenced Black and brown voices.”
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