Biden criticizes ‘ugly’ Republicans for targeting Disney after its criticism of Parental Rights Bill

By William On Apr 22, 2022

President Joe Biden criticized ‘ugly’ Republicans for targeting Disney and said the GOP has been taken over by the ‘far right’ in his speeches at two Democratic fundraisers on the West Coast on Thursday.

‘This is not your father’s Republican Party,’ Biden said Thursday afternoon at a high-dollar fundraiser at the Portland Yacht Club, co-hosted by The New Republic’s owner and editor Win McCormack and his political consultant wife, Carol Butler. ‘This is the MAGA party.’

The president said the Republican Party is ‘not even conservative in the traditional sense of conservatism’ and took aim at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ war with Disney over their opposition to the so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill on teaching sex and gender in schools.

‘I mean it’s ugly. I mean, look at what’s happening now in Florida. Christ, they’re going after Mickey Mouse,’ Biden said.

He made similar pro-Disney remarks at his second fundraiser in Seattle, Washington, headlining an affair at the lakefront home of Mary Snapp and Spencer Frazer hosted by Microsoft’s President and Vice Chair Brad Smith and his wife Kathy Surace-Smith.

‘There’s nothing conservative about throwing Disney out of its current posture… over saying gay?’ the president mused to the Seattle crowd.

Earlier Thursday, Florida Republicans started the process of dissolving Disney’s special status that allowed Walt Disney World to act as its own government in a move that lead to a huge tax increase for Floridians.

Disney publicly criticized the Parental Rights Bill and enraged DeSantis for weighing into politics.

Biden’s trip out west marked the first time he traveled to raise campaign dollars since becoming president.

The two fundraisers benefited the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund, the Democratic National Committee’s political action committee, in advance of the 2022 November midterm races.

Both polls and historical precedent suggest that Democrats could be in for a beating this fall and lose control of their narrow majorities in the House and Senate.

But in Portland Biden pushed that winning was simply a matter of letting people know where the Democrats versus Republicans stand – and believed Democrats could pick up two Senate seats.

President Joe Biden criticized ‘ugly’ Republicans for targeting Disney at his two west coast fundraisers Thursday. Earlier he gave an infrastructure speech in Portland, Oregon (pictured)

‘I mean it’s ugly. I mean, look at what’s happening now in Florida. Christ, they’re going after Mickey Mouse,’ Biden said, referring to Florida Republicans targeting Disney’s special status after the company publicly criticized the so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill

Disney publicly criticized the so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill backed by the state’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis (pictured)

‘We’ve done a hell of a job,’ he boasted at the Portland Yacht Club.

But ‘because things have moved so rapidly, so profoundly’ the American people ‘don’t know a lot about what we’ve already done.’

He cited some statistics like the creation of 7.9 million jobs, including 430,000 manufacturing jobs, a shrinking unemployment rate and deficit reduction.

‘Mickey and Minnie have full asylum in Colorado’: Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis tells Disney to ditch the Sunshine State

The culture war over Disney reached new heights Thursday, as Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Florida Gov. Ron De Santis traded barbs over the company’s future in the Sunshine State.

Earlier this week, Polis voiced disagreement over DeSantis’ support for legislation that would strip Disney of its special status as a self-governing area, which was ultimately passed Thursday by the Florida House.

Polis then accused DeSantis of using socialist tactics to control the private sector, and invited Disney to ditch the Sunshine State and move to Colorado.

The culture war over Disney reached new heights Thursday, as Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (above) and Florida Gov. Ron De Santis traded barbs over the company’s future in the Sunshine State

‘Florida’s authoritarian socialist attacks on the private sector are driving businesses away,’ Polis tweeted, along with a video of DeSantis threatening to ‘hold the Twitter board of directors accountable’ for blocking an acquisition by Elon Musk.

‘In CO, we don’t meddle in affairs of companies like @Disney or @Twitter,’ Polis tweeted on Tuesday. ‘Hey @Disney we’re ready for Mountain Disneyland and @Twitter we’re ready for Twitter HQ2, whoever your owners are.’

‘We will grant Mickey and Minnie full asylum in Colorado,’ the Democrat later wrote.

Polis doubled down on his remarks on Thursday, after the Florida House voted 68-38 to end the Reedy Creek Improvement District, meaning Disney will no longer be able to operate as a self-contained government.

‘We can’t afford to lose the House, we can’t afford to lose the Senate,’ he warned attendees in Seattle, including Washington’s Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee.

But the president admitted there was economic anxiety due to higher-than-normal gas prices and inflation that could hurt Democrats on the ballot.

‘People are angry and don’t quite know what to do,’ Biden said.

In Portland, he tore into a plan pushed by Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott – who’s in charge of the National Republican Senatorial Committee this cycle – that sunsets all federal laws after five years.

Democrats, including Biden at the fundraiser, have jumped on that to suggest it means the end of Social Security and Medicare.

‘If you want a copy of it, I’ll send it to you,’ the president told attendees of Scott’s 11-point agenda. ‘That’s what they’re running on.’

Biden recalled how Democrats successfully won back the House of Representatives in 2018, telling the crowd he went into 56 districts – and Democrats won 46.

‘We won all those seats back in 2018 because they kept for 500 times trying to do away with Obamacare,’ he said. ‘But what people didn’t know – and the point I’m about to get to, they don’t know a lot about what we’ve already done.’

‘We said do you know why, if you have a pre-existing condition, you can’t be denied insurance? Because of Obamacare. Nobody knew it. We won all of those races,’ he continued.

He then said he was ‘worried’ going into the midterms, that the American people didn’t know what he’d done.

The Portland fundraiser was originally supposed to take place at the home of McCormack and Butler, but the alt-weekly Willamette Week reported that it was moved due to popular demand.

Biden was introduced by Columbia Sportwear’s Joe Boyle.

He opened by telling the Democratic donors he was there to thank them and closed by promising to get out more ‘and mak[e] the case for what we’ve done.’

Earlier, he delivered an infrastructure-related speech at the Portland International Airport, touting the bipartisan bill he signed into law last year.

On Wednesday night, the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement Cedric Richmond – speaking at an event hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association and the Bipartisan Policy Center – suggested that at some point the president would make a ‘pivot’ and care more about the midterms.

‘I think that at some point you’ve got to make that pivot, but right now this is a president who cares more about other people than 1. his political future and 2. getting credit,’ Richmond told the crowd.

‘We all recognize that at some point we’ll take a deep breath from all those things were trying to do at once and tell the American people what we’ve been focused on doing and how we’ve achieved that,’ he continued. ‘And I think we’ve got some really great stories to tell.’

He also assured Democrats watching on C-SPAN: ‘The prediction of our demise, I think, is premature.’

President Joe Biden suggested Democrats were having political trouble because Americans were unaware of the party’s accomplishments at a Portland fundraiser Thursday. Earlier in the day he gave an infrastructure related speech at the Portland International Airport (pictured)

President Joe Biden boards Air Force One after appearing at a high-dollar Democratic fundraiser in Portland, Oregon. His second fundraiser was at a private, lakefront home in Seattle, Washington

President Joe Biden arrives in Portland, Oregon to give an infrastructure speech and then attend a fundraiser at the Portland Yacht Club

Florida lawmakers voted Thursday to strip Disney of its special status as a self-governing.

The republican-led House gave final passage to a bill that would end the Reedy Creek Improvement District, meaning the firm will no longer be able operate as a self-contained government.

‘It seems as [though] Mickey and Minnie have joined us in the chamber today,’ State Rep. Randy Fine, who sponsored the bill, said Thursday ahead of the vote as the sound of yelling filled the chamber.

The House passed the measure with a 68-38 vote after the Senate backed the bill by 23-16 the day before. The legislation will now go to DeSantis’ desk for signing and could come into effect on June 1, 2023.

The governor has previously issued support for the measure, saying during a fundraising pitch Wednesday: ‘Disney and other woke corporations won’t get away with peddling their unchecked pressure campaigns any longer.

‘If we want to keep the Democrat machine and their corporate lapdogs accountable, we have to stand together now.’

The House on Thursday also approved a Senate-passed bill that removes Disney’s big tech censorship exemption.

The newly-passed bill rips up the 55-year-old deal that allowed Disney to regulate land, enforce building codes and treat wastewater – and could cost the company millions in lost local taxes

Disney did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment on the changes and it remains unclear if the company will launch an appeal, but the vote sets up a potential legal battle between the state and the entertainment giant.

The newly-passed bill rips up the 55-year-old deal that allowed Disney to regulate land, enforce building codes and treat wastewater – and could cost the company millions in lost local taxes.

What is the Parental Rights in Education law?

HB 1557 was introduced by two Republican members of the Florida Legislature – Representative Joe Harding and Senator Dennis Baxley.

They say the bill’s aim is to ’empower parents’ in their children’s education, and make teachers recognize the distinction between ‘instruction’ and ‘discussion.’

‘What we’re prohibiting is instructing them in a specific direction,’ Baxley said about how teachers lead students in a classroom.

‘Students can talk about whatever they want to bring up, but sometimes the right answer is, ”You really ought to talk to your parents about that.”’

It states that ‘classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur.’

Part of it applies to kids in kindergarten through third grade, while a vague portion bans all discussion of ‘sexual orientation or gender identity’ in a ‘manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate.’

It also requires districts to ‘adopt procedures for notifying a student’s parent if there is a change in the student’s services or monitoring related to the student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being,’ something LGBTQ advocates argue could lead to students being outed to their parents without the student’s knowledge or consent.

The state House approved the bill in February. It was passed in the state Senate on March 8 in a 22-17 vote. DeSantis signed it into law on March 28 and it will come into effect on July 1.

Florida’s Orange and Osceola counties may also end up saddled with $1billion of debt currently owed by Walt Disney World.

Reedy Creek Improvement District, as the Disney government is known, as well as a handful of other similar districts, will be eliminated by June 2023.

The legislation does allow for the districts to be reestablished, leaving an avenue to renegotiate its future.

The creation of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, and the control it gave Disney over 27,000 acres in Florida, was a crucial element in the company’s plans to build near Orlando in the 1960s.

Company officials said they needed autonomy to plan a futuristic city along with the theme park. The city never materialized, however; instead, it morphed into the Epcot theme park.

Reedy Creek Improvement District encompasses the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista and is home to fewer than 100 total residents.

The district is run by a five-member Board of Supervisors who are elected by landowners, not city residents.

Reedy Creek oversees land use, environmental protections and provides essential service – such as fire protection, emergency medical services, water and sewage, waste management, drainage and flood control, electric power distribution, and more – to the two communities, according to the district’s website. Reedy Creek also maintains all roadways and bridges in the communities.

Some lawmakers allege the dissolution of the district could cause significant financial hardship for the nearby Orange and Osceola counties, which house sections of Walt Disney World and Reedy Creek.

The counties, on June 1, 2023, would assume all of Reedy Creek’s assets and liabilities and become responsible for providing all of the services currently handled by the district, CNBC reported.

Currently, Disney finances the services supplied by Reedy Creek, which would normally be funded by local municipalities. The company, instead, charges itself property taxes to finance its service and pays the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement.

Once Reedy Creek is dismantled, local taxpayers and municipalities would likely be responsible for those services.

‘Removing district could transfer $2billion debt from Disney to taxpayers and could potential have an enormous impact on Orange and Osceola residents!’ State Sen. Linda Stewart, who voted against the bill, tweeted Wednesday.

However, Rep. Fine told Insider he believed taxes could go down because the measure was ‘eliminating a layer of government’.

Walt Disney’s ‘Magic Kingdom’: How 1967 law allowed the company to govern its vast Florida domain

The Reedy Creek Improvement District, a semi-private, special-purpose government, is controlled by Disney and spans 39 square miles.

It was created in 1967 when then-Florida Gov. Claude Kirk, a Republican, signed into law the Reedy Creek Improvement Act authorizing it to regulate land use, enforce building codes, treat wastewater, control drainage, maintain utilities and provide fire protection at Disney World.

The district is governed a Board of Supervisors that is selected by its 19 landowners, the biggest and most influential of them being Disney World.

The district has the authority to tax the land, and use the revenue to provide essential public services and operate and maintain all public roads and bridges.

Such private governments aren’t uncommon in Florida, which has more than 600 community development districts that manage and pay for infrastructure in new communities.

If the 1967 is repealed by GOP lawmakers, Disney World’s property will fall under the control of Orange and Osceola counties.