The Miami Herald warned Wednesday that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is taking a page from disgraced former President Richard Nixon’s playbook with his attack on Disney.
An editorial in the influential South Florida paper condemned DeSantis, a potential GOP 2024 presidential candidate, for his push “to strip Walt Disney World of the special taxing district that independently governs it” as “an act of pure vengeance” and “the stuff of Richard Nixon and his enemies list.”
“It’s clear that the governor has been nursing a towering grudge against Disney ever since the company had the nerve to listen to its employees and — belatedly, but rightly — speak out against the ‘Don’t say gay’ bill, withholding political campaign contributions in Florida,” the scathing editorial said.
DeSantis is “using the levers of government to crush his enemy,” the editorial argued, and his claim of simply trying to eliminate pre-1968 special taxing districts “doesn’t pass the smell test” because it’s a “precision missile strike” aimed at the entertainment company.
“Back in 1971, Nixon’s list had 20 names on it. Over the next few years, it grew to 576 names. We all know how that ended,” the newspaper concluded. “Now we have DeSantis’ frightening misuse of power. It must stop here, and that starts with lawmakers stiffening their backbones. Today, it’s Disney. Tomorrow, who knows?”