House Speaker Kevin McCarthy telling
Florida Governor
Ron DeSantis to find a way
to end his battle with Disney
and that his threat against the company
don't fly
I don't think the idea of building
a prison next to a place that you bring
your family is the best idea.
I think it would be much better
if you sat down and solve the problems.
Well, McCarthy's comments coming
just one day after Disney sued DeSantis,
accusing him of a clear pattern
of retaliation
after the company
spoke out against Florida's
ban on teaching young kids
about sexual orientation
and gender identity,
and that DeSantis actions
are violating Disney's
right to free speech.
OUTFRONT now, Scott Jennings,
who is the former special assistant
to President George W Bush.
Our legal analyst, Joey
Jackson, and, of course,
our numbers ally extraordinaire.
You want me to say what it says?
Our numbers with Erica Perry and Ben.
All right, Scott.
So you just heard Speaker McCarthy.
This is a man who doesn't come out
and say that without having decided
he was going to say
that it hasn't come off in a flip,
not thought out way.
So do you think the census has gone
too far here?
Well, I think wait.
McCarthy also said
he had advice for Disney,
which is maybe don't be so political,
but so he had advice for both sides.
I think part of the DeSantis brand
is I'm going to fight
Luke ism in our culture
wherever it is,
especially in these corporations.
And I will not be distracted.
I think what he's selling is,
you know, Trump
will occasionally
complain about these things,
but he gets distracted and tomorrow
he'll forget about it
because he's distracted.
I am a dog with a bone
and I will never let it go.
I will start fights
and I will finish them.
And I think that's
what he's communicating here is,
you know,
I don't care
who criticizes me,
I will not let this go
because it is the core who I am now.
Good political strategy or not,
I don't know yet,
but that's the brand he's advertising.
So, Joey,
Governor DeSantis is overseas right now.
So he was in Jerusalem
when he commented
about the Disney lawsuit. Right.
His time zones were off.
And so he commented today
and here's some of what he said
They're upset
because they're actually having to live
by the same rules as everybody else.
They don't want to have
to pay the same taxes as everybody else.
I don't think the suit has merit.
I think it's political
Now he's got this confidence
because he's got that Harvard Law degree.
But, you know, practicing lawyers
have may have a different opinion.
So does the lawsuit have merit?
I think Harvard Law graduates
will tell you that it does.
I will tell you that
people who have not
graduated from Harvard
will tell you also it has a lot of merit
Why do I say that?
Because this is clearly
an attack upon speech.
Why do we know that?
If you look at the lawsuit itself,
it uses his words against him,
go, whoa, go broke.
It speaks about how he called
in, convened a special session.
In that special session,
he was very clear with respect
to what he was doing,
punishing Disney
for their views, for them
not being a political
until it crosses the line.
And so I think at the end of the day,
not only does he lose the lawsuit,
but I think he pays attorney fees, etc.
And I think there's going to be
there's no question
that from a First Amendment perspective,
the causal connection
between what he wanted to do,
punish and based upon
the statements are there.
And I think
without question, he's in trouble.
And Disney makes the points
actually in their argument
quite poignant.
They were saying they're taking a stand
that smaller businesses
and individuals,
I'm quoting them,
might not be able to take
when the state comes after them.
For expressing
their own views in America.
The government cannot punish you
for speaking your mind.
So they're both saying it's free speech
and they are doing this
because they're big
and because they're a juggernaut.
And to help.
So when others can't listen,
I think it's been said and Scott,
I know you saw this,
that he was outdone by Mickey Mouse.
I think that that is going to be really
the lesson to be to be taught here.
I think from a perspective
of having a lawsuit that has merit,
that's based on the First Amendment,
you can't
if you're a corporation,
you're allowed to state
what your views are.
You're allowed to give the indication
that what you're doing,
Governor, are wrong.
And so the legislature convenes
to punish you for that. Can't do it.
This is America.
The other side of that, though, is
this is a more muscular
brand of Republicanism.
And this is
what a lot of Republicans want is for
when Republicans have the levers of power
to be unafraid
to use it, to go
after the people that they think
are harming American culture.
I don't
I don't know where this is headed,
but this is the beginnings
of more muscular Republicanism
that may not be, well,
a different republic,
certainly a different different
not traditional conservatism,
but Republicanism.
I get the distinction.
So, Harry, to this point,
because I think what what
you just hit on here,
Scott, is we're at the heart
of what you're going to talk about.
So McCarthy is not alone.
Now, when you say
you're going to put a prison next
to Disney, a lot of people got upset.
And that was enough for a lot of people,
a lot of mainstream
conservative Republicans
to speak out and take a stand.
And here they are. Yeah. I mean,
it's not good for the
for Governor DeSantis.
I don't think it's good
for the Republican Party.
This does not help the team.
And I just want the team
to be able to win.
I think he's getting it wrong on Disney.
If I don't agree
how Disney has handled things.
But you don't use the heavy
hand of government to punish a business.
If Disney would like to move there
hundreds of thousands of jobs
to South Carolina
and bring the billions of dollars
with them, I'll let them know.
I'll be
happy to meet them in South Carolina.
All right.
They're all on the same page.
But where are Republican voters?
Let me just say,
I always prefer
Disneyland to Disney World.
But when it comes to this
particular issue on Disney, you know,
Ron DeSantis is pushed this fight
with Disney
he's pushed, you know, the six week
abortion ban.
The majority of Republican voters
are with him,
but only about two thirds or 60 to 66%
are with him. Right.
There's about
one third of the Republican Party
who is not with him on Disney
and not with him on the six week
abortion ban.
So this actually splits
the GOP in some sense. Right.
So we have this majority
but there's a significant minority.
Disagree.
But more than that,
I think the question is,
is this really working
in this Republican primary
fight against Donald Trump?
And what do we see in the polling?
You know, Fox News is that pulls out
the last three months.
You go back to February,
what have we had?
We had Trump ahead,
but he was only ahead by about 15 points.
Now you look
that lead
30 points in March
and 32 points in April.
So this fights these fights
that are pushing
maybe they are popular with the majority
of Republican voters.
But in terms of the actual bread
that's rising,
it's not actually rising
the way he wants it.
What's the timing on on a case
that's at this stage
so it'll take a while.
But let me just say this.
There's what's called injunctive relief.
What does that mean in English?
It means that he's looking for the courts
to say that, Governor, you're wrong.
The legislation was passed
as a result of retaliation.
We want things to go
back to the status quo.
I think that you'll see that
that'll happen pretty expeditiously.
And I think
also they're advising that his political
and perhaps his legal people
to get out of this
from a settlement perspective.
But oftentimes, you know, Erin,
it takes months and months and months,
sometimes years.
Right, for a lawsuit
to see its way through.
I think this will be
more rapid than that.
And what I wonder
right now, my lane, yours and yours,
but the reality is,
from a political perspective,
I think he's going to take a loss
at the loss of the law
because it's staying there.
It's not like it goes away.
It's not like
you can just quietly
stop talking about it.
By the way, Adam
as you say, doesn't want to be.
I don't think
I don't think taking up for Disney
if I'm Haley or I.
Yeah. I don't see. All right. So.