(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley did her fledgling campaign no favors Wednesday, when the former South Carolina governor offered to act as a benevolent real estate agent for Disney.
Haley’s comments came in response to Disney announcing it was suing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for revoking the woefully woke company’s self-governing privileges in its special district. DeSantis made the move after Disney aggressively fought and publicly denigrated the state’s anti-grooming Parental Rights in Education Law.
In the Disney suit filed Wednesday, the company ironically claimed that DeSantis was waging a “targeted campaign of government retaliation,” in his efforts to strengthen parental rights and protect public school students.
If Disney doesn’t like Florida, Haley said she’d be glad to pull strings facilitating a move. While insisting that South Carolina was and always would be “anti-woke,” she nonetheless proclaimed, “If Disney would like to move their hundreds of thousands of jobs to South Carolina and bring the billions of dollars with them, I’ll let them know I’ll be happy to meet them in South Carolina and introduce them to the governor and the legislature that would welcome it.”
Desantis’s office called Disney’s lawfare assault “yet another unfortunate example of their hope to undermine the will of the Florida voters and operate outside the bounds of the law.”
That echoed the same message DeSantis delivered at last week’s Heritage Foundation event, where he explained the difference between being a conservative and a corporate stooge.
“It’s not conservative to simply defer to every corporation in America. That’s being a corporatist,” DeSantis said in what would be a prescient comment.
A senior DeSantis aide texts this clip from his Heritage speech:
“It’s not conservative to simply defer to every corporation in America. That's being a corporatist.”
Earlier today Nikki Haley invited Disney to leave Florida for South Carolina
pic.twitter.com/s1tu789q1a— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) April 26, 2023
“A corporatist would say you have to give Disney everything it wants,” the Florida governor said, noting the the company already enjoyed unprecedented tax breaks and legal exemptions.
“That’s not good government. That’s not free enterprise,” DeSantis said. “But it’s certainly even worse when a company takes all those privileges that have been bestowed over many, many decades and uses that to wage war on state policies regarding families and children.”
New Harvard/Harris Polls asked voters if they approve/disapprove Ron DeSantis’ actions to limit Disney’s self-government
Support 56% (+12)
Oppose 44%Independents
Support 54% (+8)
Oppose 46% pic.twitter.com/W57xiAIdhH— Joel Weingart (@JoelWeingart_) April 21, 2023
Haley’s offer to help Disney relocate to South Carolina sent exactly the wrong message, argued Blaze Media’s Allie Beth Stuckey.
“Nope. The correct response would have been: “Disney has done everything possible to undermine the will of the people and the rights of parents in Florida,” she tweeted. “DeSantis was right to push back on them, and I will continue to root him on. As president I would likewise take a strong stand against corporate intimidation.”
Conservative commentator Tim Young was equally disappointed with Haley’s warped messaging, writing that “Disney wants to push the trans agenda on your kids… and Nikki Haley just loves them,” while Rogan O’Handley said that Haley “completely destroyed her already sinking campaign.”
“Just in case you needed any further proof that Nikki Haley will sell out this country to the slimiest bidder,” he wrote, “here she is inviting Disney to move to SC after DeSantis challenged them for attacking his anti-Groomer law.”
Haley isn’t the only Republican presidential hopeful who has ripped DeSantis at the expense of backing Disney, but with decidedly different political repercussions.
Nikki Haley is about to learn that she's not Donald Trump.
Trump can get away with siding with Disney because he has a fanbase that will literally excuse and defend anything. Haley doesn't have that. She's done.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) April 26, 2023
