By Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger fired back at Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday, saying his apparent retaliation against Disney for taking a position on legislation was "anti-business."
After initially trying to stay neutral, Disney opposed Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act that restricts classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Soon after, DeSantis and the Florida legislature moved to eliminate the virtual autonomy the company enjoyed in the running of Walt Disney World in Orlando.
Iger, answering a question at the company's annual shareholder meeting, said Disney may not have handled its position on the bill well, but added that corporations have a right to express opinions.
He said it appeared DeSantis "decided to retaliate against us."
"To seek to punish a company for the exercise of a constitutional right, that just seems really wrong to me," Iger said.
He also noted that Disney employs 75,000 people in the state and will welcome 50 million visitors to Disney World this year.
"These efforts simply to retaliate for a position the company took sounds not just anti-business, but it sounds anti-Florida," Iger said.
A representative for DeSantis, who is considered likely to run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier at the meeting, shareholders supported the 11 nominees to the company's board including Iger and Chairman Mark Parker, the executive chairman of Nike and its former CEO who replaces the retiring chairman, Susan Arnold at Disney.
Shareholders rejected a proposal backed by the National Legal and Policy Center that would have called for Disney to provide an annual report on its reliance on China for raw materials, finished products, theme park revenue and labor.
In a 27-page document supporting its proposal, the group accused Disney of "repeated capitulation" to the Chinese government "to retain access to Chinese audiences."
Disney had urged shareholders to vote against the proposal, saying the company already complies with extensive reporting requirements to keep investors informed, and that the board provides regular oversight of its business.
Voters also turned down a shareholder proposal that called on Disney to provide more information about its charitable contributions. The company said it discloses its donations through Disney's annual corporate social responsibility report, and such a measure was unnecessary.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Bill Berkrot)
Early Monday afternoon the United States of America became a majority permitless gun carry country, as Florida GOP governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill quickly passed through the legislature with little time for pushback.
DeSantis frequently holds press conferences and bill signings, often at schools, often surrounded by little children as he tries to advance his "parents' rights" campaign. But on Monday, the governor who many are expecting to formally announce a White House run soon, shunned the cameras and the kids, opting for a quiet, closed-door signing. A tweet from the NRA appears to show DeSantis signing the bill surrounded by their "representatives."
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison accused DeSantis of "standing shoulder to shoulder" with the NRA, which it says was "invited" to the signing.
The signing comes exactly one-week, almost to the minute, of the Nashville school mass shooting, when three nine-year olds – about the same age of school children DeSantis has often surrounded himself with at signing – and three adults were shot to death by an assault-weapon-wielding gunman.
"The NRA applauds Florida for becoming the 26th state to adopt the vital Constitutional Carry legislation," an NRA executive said in a statement to Fox News. "This NRA-spearheaded initiative empowers Floridians to exercise their Second Amendment rights without undue bureaucratic barriers, affirming the fundamental right to self-defense."
"There were already 25 states that had permitless or 'constitutional carry' laws on the books," Fox News explains, "meaning Florida tipped the U.S. into becoming a constitutional carry-majority nation."
Giffords, the anti-gun violence organization founded by former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, slammed DeSantis.
"Governor DeSantis just signed permitless carry into law behind closed doors, probably because he knows it’s dangerous & unpopular," the group said on social media. "This bill was rushed through the legislature—and DeSantis signed it quietly with the NRA’s support and against Floridians’ wishes."
Hillsborough County, Florida State Attorney Andrew Warren blasted the move.
The new law goes into effect July 1.
While former President Donald Trump is seen by many political analysts as having too much baggage to win a second term in office, New York Magazine columnist Jonathan Chait is pointing to new moves being made by centrist organization No Labels that could put him back in the White House anyway.
Chait notes that the group, which is funded anonymously by private donors, is signaling that it plans to run a candidate for president in 2024 that could potentially peel away enough Democratic voters to give Trump a win in key swing states.
"Like a far-off meteor heading directly for Earth, a No Labels campaign is simultaneously distant yet disconcertingly likely to result in catastrophe," Chait argues.
Although the group insists it will not a run a "spoiler" campaign, Chait argues that it's highly suspicious that former Sen. Joe Lieberman, an associate of the group, would not say that President Joe Biden is not an "extreme" candidate despite the fact that he has enjoyed multiple bipartisan successes ranging from his infrastructure bill to legislation aimed at building up America's capacity to build semiconductors.
IN OTHER NEWS: Ron DeSantis orders investigation into 'ethical violations' after Disney outwits his takeover
"Biden may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but he has worked productively with Republicans to sign a surprisingly broad array of bipartisan legislation," notes Chait. "His main partisan domestic initiative was essentially written by Joe Manchin, who is also involved with No Labels. It seems bizarre to create a group dedicated to promoting moderate, bipartisan legislation as a protest against a president who has actually accomplished those very goals."
Chait concludes by warning that No Labels is creating a "political doomsday device" that could inflict incalculable damage on the United States.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has ordered an investigation into Disney after the company outmaneuvered him in a legal battle for a special tax district.
Before DeSantis could sign a bill to take over the Reedy Creek Development District, the board quietly signed its power over to Disney in a binding declaration that does not expire until the death of the last descendant of England's King Charles III.
On Monday, DeSantis wrote a letter to Florida's chief inspector general demanding an investigation.
The letter noted that Disney's move was "designed to usurp the authority" of the newly legislated Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD).
"These collusive and self-dealing arrangements aim to nullify the recently passed legislation, undercut Florida's legislative process, and defy the will of Floridians," DeSantis wrote in the letter. "In addition, based on initial observations of counsel, the RCID board's actions appear to suffer from serious legal infirmities, including, among other things, inadequate notice, lack of consideration, improper delegation of authority, and ethical violations, such as conflicts of interest and self-dealing."
DeSantis said the "thorough review" should report any "legal or ethical violations" to the appropriate authorities.
King Charles III's connection came after the Reedy board put in place a Royal Lives Clause, a centuries-old legal tactic that comes from the UK and was historically used to ensure a trust's future.
The governor has been at war with Disney since the company ordered Covid-19 safety measures. Disney has also been at odds with the governor over the state's so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill.
Read the letter below.
As he leaps with both feet into his run for the Republican party's 2024 presidential nomination, Donald Trump plans to more tightly embrace the Jan. 6 insurrection and the rioters and put his primary opponents on the spot to either join him in his celebration or face the wrath of his ardent fans, reports the Daily Beast.
With the shadow of multiple investigations hanging over him, including one by special counsel Jack Smith about his part in inciting the Capitol riot, the former president is leaning harder into using the attack on the Capitol to keep his base fired up.
As the former president reportedly sees it, his support of the rioters will keep his GOP opponents off balance as they try to peel voters away from him.
Put simply, as the Daily Beast's Jake Lahut wrote, "In doing so, the thinking goes, Trump is able to not only strengthen his bond with core primary voters, but also drive a wedge between those voters and other GOP presidential contenders—several of whom have loudly criticized Trump for his role in the Capitol violence."
According to one GOP political strategist, Trump's strategy seems aimed at his likely lead competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, as he tries to differentiate himself from Trump.
“DeSantis can’t come out and say Jan. 6 was a terrible day in our country’s history akin to Pearl Harbor. He’d be done,” they explained before adding, "But he also can’t be put in a place where he’s defending Trump’s actions."
The report adds, "In what should otherwise be a devastating low point for a presidential candidate besieged by a multi-count indictment on top of other legal woes, the Trump 2024 campaign thinks they’ve found a way to turn the tables on the rest of the field by daring them to cross the GOP base over the hush money case and Jan. 6."
You can read more here.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was met by dozens of Donald Trump supporters rallying outside a book-signing event this weekend in New York who weren’t happy to see him. “Go home, DeSantis, go home!” a Trump supporter shouted at the line of people waiting to get into the DeSantis event on Long Island on Saturday, according to a report from WABC-TV in New York. Trump supporter Paul Ingrassia said DeSantis is causing a split in the Republican Party. “He should be endorsing President Trump,” Ingrassia told WABC. In his speech, DeSantis again accused New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg of politically target...
By Doina Chiacu
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson announced his 2024 U.S. presidential candidacy on Sunday with a proclamation that set him apart from other current or potential Republican candidates: former President Donald Trump should step aside from the race.
In an interview with ABC's "This Week," Hutchinson urged Trump, who launched his candidacy in November, to drop out of the race after the former president's indictment on Thursday in New York following an investigation into hush money payments to a porn star.
"I mean, first of all, the office is more important than any individual person. And so for the sake of the office of the presidency, I do think that's too much of a sideshow and distraction and he needs to be able to concentrate on his due process and there is a presumption of innocence," Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson, who was governor of the southern state from 2015 until early this year after earlier serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, said he would make his formal announcement in Arkansas later this month but has decided to run.
"I have made a decision, and my decision is I'm going to run for president of the United States," Hutchinson said. "I'm convinced that people want leaders that appeal to the best of America, and not simply appeal to our worst instincts."
Democratic President Joe Biden is expected to seek re-election next year.
Hutchinson has criticized Trump in the past. He made clear on Sunday he would not shrink, as a candidate, from confronting Trump, who remains popular among many Republicans despite becoming the first former president to be indicted.
"I think it's a sad day for America that we have a former president that's indicted," Hutchinson said.
Asked whether Trump should step aside, Hutchinson said, "Well, he should, but at the same time, we know he's not."
The other Republicans who have launched campaigns for the party's 2024 nomination include former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and activist investor Vivek Ramaswamy. Former Vice President Mike Pence and current Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are considered as possible candidates.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Will Dunham and Bill Berkrot)
AUSTIN, Texas — In July 2020, the president of Texas A&M University appointed a 45-member commission to examine the progress of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the nearly 70,000-student flagship campus in College Station. The panel’s report, released in January 2021, found both strengths and weaknesses in the school’s approach. But overall, said the commissioners, “there remains within the Aggie community a strong desire to show bold leadership in support of diversity, equity and inclusion … and to ensure that ALL Aggies are welcome and respected at the school we think so grand.” Tw...
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came to Long Island, New York, to sign books Saturday – and was met by Trump supporters.
Kristin Thorne, a WABC Channel 7 reporter, posted two Tweets with video: The first showed pro-Trump supporters arriving at the event, while the second was captioned “Oh boy. Things are heating up. Trump supporters vs DeSantis supporters.”
Aside from some shouting, there was no physical confrontation seen in the video. But if Trump supporters wanted to make themselves known at DeSantis’ expense, they succeeded, albeit mildly.
There was this from CBS New York: “Some Trump supporters were outside the museum Saturday to protest DeSantis, waving flags and signs that read “DeSantis go home” and driving a caravan through the parking lot.”
“We’re supporting the fact that Donald Trump should be our next president in 2024, not Ron DeSantis. It’s not his time,” Joanne Wong said.
“Ron DeSantis 2028. Jump on the train, but wait your turn,” another Trump supporter said.
Many said they also support DeSantis, but they want to see Trump get re-elected first.
The speech itself was less confrontational, Thorne Tweeted.
“DeSantis talks Trump without talking Trump. He blasted Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg to which he got a standing ovation.”
Religious conservatives need “to get off the sidelines” to support Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in wresting evangelical support from Donald Trump, a political strategist urged Saturday in the Religious News Service.
“Despite a penchant for blunders in his campaign’s soft-launch rollout, DeSantis has a great opportunity to snatch away the religious right from Trump,” wrote Jacob Lupfer, a self-described “political reformer” who advised Gov. William Weld in a 2020 primary challenge to Trump.
“Perhaps foolishly, I believe that there are enough pastors and other leaders who still harbor a hope that the Republican Party, with the help of Christians of conscience, can be a force for good if they can work themselves out of the Trumpian knot and their own badly damaged moral credibility,” Lupfer wrote.
But Lupfer worried aloud about the failure of evangelical Christians to make a choice against Trump. And he cites the phrase “it’s time for choosing” that Trump uttered in announcing he’d blackball any campaign professional who worked for DeSantis.
“Why are evangelicals holding back on choosing? Faith leaders (or Republican operatives) who still cling to notions about integrity and decency may determine that DeSantis can only get the nomination if he outdoes Trump in sheer ugliness, not by pointing to a better, more honorable way,” writes Lupfer.
In that regard, the commentary damns DeSantis with faint praise: “DeSantis wages war on trans people and demonizes anyone who advocates for LGBTQ people. Trump has a record of catering to gay Republicans. Trump may have appointed conservative judges, but DeSantis directly and maximally exerts his will through expanded appointive powers to shape the ideology of Florida’s state offices and institutions. Trump whines about the media; DeSantis shuts out mainstream outlets, humiliates their reporters and gives unprecedented access to worshipful right-wing bloggers.”
Still, DeSantis is presented as an antidote to Trump, who the author, who described Trump’s recent Waco rally as “disturbing and quasi-religious even by the bizarre standards of Trumpist rallies” And he said it “underscored the extent of DeSantis’ problem. He has to in effect dislodge a cult leader.”
And he added this: “Trump may not prevail even with evangelicals on his side. He is consumed with legal trouble. At points it’s hard to watch his campaign without the creeping suspicion that it’s little more than a money racket, or a vanity project for a man as self-obsessed as ever.”
No, we’re not talking about Democrat Andrew Warren, removed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as state’s attorney in Hillsborough County for alleged incompetence and neglect of duty for expressing opposition to prosecuting abortion- and trandgender-care-related crimes.
We’re talking about DeSantis himself, a Republican, and his reaction to the indictment Thursday of Donald Trump, his political patron in 2018, against whom he may soon be running for president, in Manhattan on multiple charges, related to alleged payments during the 2016 election intended to buy the silence of adult film actor Stormy Daniels about an alleged affair.
DeSantis has declared that he will not assist in any extradition effort, notwithstanding his apparent obligation to do so under the U.S. Constitution and federal law.
“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. It is un-American,” DeSantis wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
“The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent. Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda,” the governor continued.
Warren himself, still fighting for reinstatement in state and federal appeals courts, remarked on the situation on Twitter.
“Your blatant hypocrisy is a direct assault on the rule of law. You falsely accuse others of not upholding the law. You were found to have broken the law. And now to kowtow politically you refuse to follow the law. This is how democracy dies — with words & deeds like yours,” Warren tweeted.
Warren elaborated in a telephone interview with the Phoenix Friday.
“It sounds like Gov. DeSantis needs to immediately suspend Gov. DeSantis,” Warren said.
“He suspended me on a bogus allegation of not enforcing the law. A court determined that the allegations were bogus. Now he’s clearly saying that he won’t follow the Constitution. He said that the grand jury process was questionable; the only thing that’s questionable is his commitment to upholding the rule of law.”
The Manhattan district attorney is Alvin Bragg, Jr., who, after taking office in January 2022, initially instructed his staff to seek jail time in only the most serious crimes but later backtracked, as The New York Times has reported.
Earlier, DeSantis needled the former president about the sordid nature of the impending charges but declared: “We are not involved in this, won’t be involved in this. I have no interest in getting involved in some sort of manufactured circus by some Soros D.A., OK?”
Asked how the governor differentiates his position in the Trump case to his treatment of Warren, press aide Jeremy Redfern didn’t answer directly, instead repeating DeSantis’ established position on Warren.
“There’s been an entire trial on this matter. Between our press conference, the trial, and the numerous legal filings from our office, there is plenty of publicly available information on our position,” Redfern told the Phoenix by email.
“That being said, here’s a statement from me: Mr. Warren remains suspended from the office he failed to serve.”
Other Republican electeds rallied around both the former president and the governor.
“Upon learning of the NY DA indictment, I am heartbroken by the damage this targeted prosecution will do to the integrity of our justice system. It is a sad day in the story of the United States, Attorney General Ashley Moody tweeted.
“This is leadership. This is Florida. The Rule of Law matters here. The Constitution matters here. We’re not some drug infested, crime ridden banana republic like New York,” Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis contributed.
Nikki Fried, the former state agriculture commissioner turned chair of the Florida Democratic Party, picked up on DeSantis’ slagging of Soros, the Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor and billionaire donor to progressive causes including criminal justice reform who’s become a bête noir to conservatives.
“Breaking the law is un-American and blaming it on George Soros is anti-Semitic,” Fried tweeted.
“Both the United States Constitution and Florida law make clear that Ron DeSantis cannot block the extradition of Donald Trump,” wrote Fentrice Driskell, Democratic leader in the Florida House.
Brandon Wolf, the Pulse nightclub shooting survivor who serves as press secretary to Equality Florida, pointed to DeSantis’ political motivation.
“DeSantis is a graduate of Yale and Harvard Law. He’s aware of interstate extradition requirements. But this is his gig. Gets you to write about him on his terms. Gets you to paint him as a ‘tough guy’ in hopes that no one notices he’s little more than a bad performance artist,” Wolf wrote.
The letter of constitutional and statutory authority seems to impose a duty on the governor to cooperate should New York seek Trump’s extradition from his home in Palm Beach County. That may not be necessary, since Trump has indicated plans to surrender himself.
“A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime,” Article IV, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution says.
That’s backed up by a federal statute.
The U.S. Supreme Court has not always enforced these obligations. In 1861, in Kentucky v. Dennison, the Court refused to order the governor of Ohio to extradite to Kentucky a free Black man accused of attempting to help an enslaved woman escape captivity. The Extradition Clause and federal law, the court reasoned, imposed only a “moral” duty to comply with such an extradition request.
“The act does not provide any means to compel the execution of this duty, nor inflict any punishment for neglect or refusal on the part of the Executive of the State; nor is there any clause or provision in the Constitution which arms the Government of the United States with this power,” the court said.
However, the high court repudiated that ruling in 1987 in Puerto Rico v. Branstad, a case involving the extradition from Iowa of a man accused or running over a couple in Puerto Rico with his car, injuring the man and killing the woman plus her unborn baby.
In an opinion by the late Thurgood Marshall, the court noted that Dennison was rendered while the Civil War was breaking out, and that war had reordered the relationship between the states so as to compel federal courts to enforce of the Extradition Clause and the federal statute implementing it.
“Kentucky v. Dennison is the product of another time. The conception of the relation between the States and the Federal Government there announced is fundamentally incompatible with more than a century of constitutional development. Yet this decision has stood while the world of which it was a part has passed away. We conclude that it may stand no longer,” Marshall wrote.
The only exception, according to a Library of Congress analysis, would be if Trump were being held subject to a prosecution by Florida authorities; in that case, the state would be entitled to complete any proceeding against him here.
Extradition is a routine obligation, Warren said.
“Except when there are extraordinary circumstances. The requirements are that it’s a facially valid charge. If you charge someone with something that’s a crime on the books, that’s facially valid. If you charge someone with wearing the wrong-colored shirt one day, then that would be facially invalid,” he continued.
Also: “You have to confirm it’s the right person,”
Additionally, states sign on to the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act, agreeing to send defendants when asked, he said.
“This is such a ministerial function. Meaning there’s no controversy whatsoever to it. If somebody commits a crime in Tampa and we find out they’ve fled to another state, law enforcement contacts authorities in that state, lets them know that person has an outstanding warrant, they get arrested, they get returned here — if they’re not willing to voluntarily surrender,” Warren said.
“Here, we’re really early in the facts because we don’t really know what the indictment charges, but the news has reported that Trump’s attorneys have said that he would voluntarily surrender, so it probably won’t even be an issue.
“But the law is clear: The Constitution requires states to honor other states’ criminal charges. It’s a very simple procedural mechanism for doing it.”
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
A former Donald Trump attorney is calling on the ex-president to refuse to surrender to New York authorities and remain at Mar-a-Lago, where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has promised him sanctuary.
DeSantis on Thursday assailed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in a tweet that said the Sunshine State wouldn’t cooperate if there was an attempt to extradite Trump to New York.
The former president indicted on Thursday in connection to an investigation over alleged hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He is expected to be arraigned Tuesday.
“The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent,” DeSantis tweeted.
“Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda.”
Ellis urged Trump to take his political frenemy’s offer.
“Trump should refuse to surrender to New York and use this opportunity to work with DeSantis, who has said Florida will not assist an extradition request,” Ellis tweeted.
“If Trump is REALLY going to fight against weaponization of government on behalf of America, take DeSantis’s offer and unify the Republican base.
"This is war."
Earlier this week, reports indicated an elementary school in St. Petersburg, Florida banned a Disney documentary about civil rights hero Ruby Bridges, the first Black girl in New Orleans to attend an integrated public school, after a parent complained that the scenes of angry mobs shouting at her as she entered the building would teach kids about racism.
Now, according to the Tampa Bay Times, the school is changing course and denying that is what happened.
"[District officials] struggled to explain their initial action — an apparent ban of the film at one school — which would go against long-standing school district policy. Now they are blaming a miscommunication, and some school board members say they are upset at the way district administrators allowed the controversy to play out," reported Jeffrey S. Solochek.
"The policy, reauthorized this year by the school board, states that any challenged materials 'will remain in use' until a review committee issues its recommendation on what to do with the items. That’s not how the district first described what happened at North Shore Elementary in St. Petersburg, where a parent, Emily Conklin, claimed the movie about a girl who integrated a New Orleans school teaches students that white people hate Black people."
Prior emails support the original reporting. An area official, Michael Vigue, emailed Conklin to say that North Shore Elementary “will no longer be using this video to support the K-5 curriculum.” Superintendent Kevin Hendrick now says this email was "incorrect." According to the report, members of the Pinellas school board are frustrated, with one, Caprice Edmond, saying, “One parent shouldn’t have the say-so over what other parents can see for their kids.”
This comes as schools around Florida deal with tough new policies being pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the legislature that make it easier for local activists to order books be censored, ostensibly over issues like "pornography" — though the laws are so vaguely written that some schools are emptying entire library shelves.
Soon things could go even further; GOP lawmakers in Florida have reportedly slipped a provision into a bill expanding the state's infamous "Don't Say Gay" law that could let a person get any material in their county removed from a school for investigation.
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