While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has drawn his battle lines with Disney World and Disney CEO Bob Iger over the last year, the “Morning Joe” team has largely been left scratching their heads over what kind of political sense picking that fight makes. Host Joe Scarborough, in short, doesn’t think DeSantis stands a chance: “He’s taking on Mickey Mouse, but now Mickey Mouse has brass knuckles because he’s taking on Bob Iger,” he said.
The dispute between Disney and DeSantis began when the company took a public stance against the divisive governor’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill in spring 2022. That’s when DeSantis decided to openly wage a campaign against Disney, which climaxed earlier this year with the dissolution of the park’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, a governmental body established in the 1960s that oversaw the construction of roads and other infrastructure in the sprawling compound, and the establishment of the eerily similar Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board.
DeSantis’ apparent victory was short-lived, though, when it became clear that measures passed right before Disney forfeited the district severely hamper the new board’s abilities to do pretty much anything to impact Disney’s current plans for the resort. It was legally sound and quickly led to continued ridicule of DeSantis — including from former president Donald Trump — for getting outwitted by Mickey Mouse (and Bob Iger).
“Florida, the Florida that we live in was created when Walt Disney said, ‘I wanna build something in the middle of Florida.’ And Floridians take great pride in it,” Scarborough said of the ongoing drama. “I’ve got friends, right-wing friends, evangelical friends, Republican friends that have never voted for a Democrat in any election — they take their kids to Disney on the weekend. They love it! They take great pride. And this is just a great example of, again, Republicans overplaying — and it’s just, it’s stupid, Ron DeSantis attacking Disney.”
Scarborough continued, saying that the conflict has “never made any sense” to him — nor has it ever “made sense politically in the state of Florida or in America.”
“And he’s taking on Mickey Mouse, but now Mickey Mouse has brass knuckles because he’s taking on Bob Iger,” Scarborough said. “I don’t know if you’ve ever gotten into a fight with Bob Iger — I have not, thanks god. That’s why I’m still here on TV. You don’t do that. And Iger is making him look like a fool. And by the way, he’s so unafraid of Ron DeSantis, he says, ‘I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do: We’re gonna throw LBGTQ celebration in the history of the world on Main Street, Disney.’ And you know why he can do that? Because he can do that, and people will still come to Disney. Why? Because they love Walt Disney. Long after Ron DeSantis is lobbying for corncob makers of America in Tallahassee, Florida, Walt Disney will still be attracting millions and millions of people from across America every year.”
Watch the full “Morning Joe” segment in the video above.
Drew Taylor contributed to this story.