Florida's lieutenant governor gave up the game Gov. Ron DeSantis is playing with Disney on Thursday, admitting on Newsmax that they are punishing Disney for disagreeing with Florida's homophobic "Don't Say Gay" law.
Former disgraced Fox News host Eric Bolling pleaded with her to give Disney a chance to redeem itself, given how beloved Disney is, and asked, "Is there an opportunity for Disney to change their mind and say we will disregard this whole 'woke' agenda, and we'll go back to what we originally dealt with in the state of Florida -- would [DeSantis] say, 'Okay fine. You can keep your status but we're going to keep on eye on you?'"
In other words, "Support everything DeSantis does or you will be punished," and "Disney can keep their tax status as long as they donate to Republican candidates."
Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez used Republicans' new shield from criticism: children. She put forth the usual lies about fear of "grooming" and "indoctrinating" kids as their excuses for undermining Disney's autonomy, but said if they changed their ways, they could regain their special status.
Allapundit makes a strong case against Florida's hatchet job against Disney.
Usually when the ruling party looks to punish its political enemies, it grasps for some “neutral” justification to do so, knowing that the clearer it is that they’re using state power to bully a private actor the more likely it is that a court will find a First Amendment violation.
DeSantis and other Republican officials have done everything short of renting a billboard to make clear that they’re trying to punish Disney for having the wrong political opinion.
I've been saying that this is a clear First amendment violation. Disney has been involved in politics since 1967, but they've mostly used their financial power to help Republicans.
Who wants to remind the Florida GOP that Citizens Untied was brought by Republicans, and made law by a GOP-majority Supreme Court to give corporations more of a voice in politics by using their wealth to do so?
It's a despicable political stunt by DeSantis.
