Ron DeSantis slams Disney for ‘trans-singing kids’ and Nikki Haley for ‘inviting’ the woke company to South Carolina in exchange for ‘telling’ kids to change gender

Ron DeSantis accused Disney of “transgenizing children” and said Nikki Haley “was invited; The company nevertheless left for South Carolina, as the debate between the two Republican presidential candidates continued its combative tone.

“It is wrong to tell a toddler like Disney that you can change your gender, or a third grader that you were born in the wrong body,” the Florida governor said. ‘I stood and fought for the children. We took on Disney and we beat that and we won that fight and our kids are better off. Nikki Haley sided with Disney. She invited them to come to South Carolina even though they were involved in trans-translating children.”

Haley hit back, arguing that DeSantis is anti-business and has fought for children.

It was another striking moment in a bitter head-on debate, with each candidate calling the other a liar and destroying his opponent’s record, while barely mentioning the frontrunner: Donald Trump.

Trump qualified for Wednesday night’s debate, which was hosted by CNN in Iowa five days before that state’s caucuses, but declined to attend.

DeSantis blasted Haley on the issue of transgender identity and children’s education. In his state of Florida, he took on Disney, one of the state’s largest employers, to replace the board that governs them, while using his fight to boost his national profile ahead of his announced presidential bid.

During the debate, he bragged that the fight against Disney was against the “800-pound gorilla in the state.”

The fight began in 2022 after Disney spoke out against a bill championed by DeSantis that would ban certain instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida classrooms, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics. The bill was passed and signed by DeSantis.

The feud with Disney is ongoing in both state and federal courts.

And DeSantis used it to attack his opponent.

“When she was governor of South Carolina, they had a bill to protect girls from men going to the bathroom. She killed it and she bragged about it for years,” DeSantis told Haley.

He then repeated criticism of her from earlier this month, when she initially failed to mention slavery as the cause of the Civil War during a town hall in New Hampshire, before later saying that it clearly was.

“Back to that young kid at the town hall where she said, Nikki Haley, you’re the new John Kerry, you’re for it before you were against it,” DeSantis said.

The transgender issue has become a culture war embraced by the Republican base.

Republicans have stepped up attacks on transgender people, with several Republican Party-led states passing laws on issues from bathroom use to medical care for transgender people.

Ron DeSantis is joined by his wife Casey and his son Mason, five, on the debate stage after taking on Nikki Haley

In 2016, when Haley was governor of South Carolina, a lawmaker in that state introduced a bill that would require public restrooms and school bathrooms in the Palmetto State to be used only based on the gender listed on a person’s birth certificate.

Haley said such a law was not “necessary.”

During the debate, she noted that the bathroom problem was not as widespread then as it is now.

“When it comes to the bathroom bill, first of all, that was ten years ago. We had a handful of children who may have had this problem. “What I made clear to the state at the time is that girls go to the girls’ bathrooms, and boys go to the boys’ bathrooms,” she said.

She noted, “I’ve always fought to protect children, saying boys should go to the boys’ bathrooms, and girls should go to the girls’ bathrooms.”

She added: “I have fought for women’s sports and ensured that biological boys are not in women’s sports and I will continue to do so. I have always said that we should raise strong girls. Strong girls become strong women. Strong women become strong leaders.”

Casey and son Mason have been knocking on doors for DeSantis to secure crucial caucusgoers

“We took on Disney and we beat that and we won that fight and our kids are better off,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said of his battle with Disney World in Florida

Haley is greeted by her daughter Rena and son Nalin after wrapping up her Iowa showdown with Republican rival DeSantis

In 2023, Haley took advantage of DeSantis’ battle with Disney by inviting the company to her state of South Carolina, but added that her state is “very anti-woke.”

The Disney feud cost Florida 2,000 jobs and Haley blasted DeSantis for his attacks on corporations.

“When they started criticizing him, he got thin-skinned and suddenly started fighting back,” Haley said. “We don’t need a government fighting our private industries. We’re not awake in South Carolina. I will always invite companies to come to South Carolina. But the one thing you don’t do is make sure the government doesn’t bully our companies.”