Ron DeSantis accused Disney of ‘transing kids’ and said Nikki Haley ‘invited; the company to South Carolina despite of that as the debate between the two Republican presidential contenders continued its combative tone.
‘It’s wrong to tell a kindergartner like Disney wanted to do that you can change your gender or a third grader you are born in the wrong body,’ the Florida governor said. ‘I stood and fought for the kids. We took on Disney and we defeated that and we won that fight and our kids are better off. Nikki Haley sided with Disney. She invited them to south Carolina even they were involved in transing kids.’
Haley hit back, arguing DeSantis is anti-business and has fought for kids.
It was another stand out moment in a bitter head-on debate, where each candidate has called the other a liar and savaged their 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 ahead of that state’s caucuses, but declined to attend.
One of the many issues Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley argued about in their debate was DeSantis’ war on Disney and transgender kids
DeSantis slammed Haley on the issue of transgender identity and education for kids. In his state of Florida, he took on Disney, one of the biggest employers in the state, replacing the board that governs them as he used his battle to raise his national profile ahead of his announced presidential bid.
During the debate, he bragged that taking on Disney was standing up to the ‘800-pound gorilla in the state.’
The battle started in 2022 after Disney spoke out against a bill championed by DeSantis that banned certain instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida classrooms, dubbed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill by critics. The bill passed and was signed into law 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 into the bathroom. She killed it and she has bragged about it for years,’ DeSantis said Haley.
He then reupped a criticism of her from earlier this month when she originally failed to list slavery as a cause of the Civil War during a town hall in New Hampshire before later saying it obviously was.
‘Back to that young kid in the town hall she had where he said Nikki Haley, you are the new John Kerry, you are for it, before you were against it,’ DeSantis said.
The transgender issue has become a cultural war embraced by the GOP base.
Republicans have ramped up the attacks on transgender people with several-GOP led states passing laws on issues from bathroom usage to medical care for transgender people.
In 2016, when Haley was governor of South Carolina, a lawmaker in that state introduced a bill that would mandate that public restrooms and school bathrooms in the Palmetto State only be used based on the gender listed on a person’s birth certificate.
Haley said that such a law wasn’t ‘necessary.’
At the debate, she noted that the bathroom issue then wasn’t as prevelant as it is now.
‘When it comes to the bathroom bill, first of all, that was ten years ago. We had a handful of kids that may have had that issue. What I made clear at that time in the state is girls go into girls bathrooms, boys into boys bathrooms,’ she said.
She noted that ‘I always fought to protect kids, said that boys need to go in boys bathrooms, girls in girls bathrooms.’
She added that ‘I have fought for women’s sports and making sure that biological boys are not in women’s sports and I will continue that. I have always said we have to raise strong girls. Strong girls become strong women. Strong women become strong leaders.’
‘We took on Disney and we defeated that and we won that fight and our kids are better off,’ Gov. Ron DeSantis said of his fight with Florida’s Disney World
In 2023, Haley did capitalize on DeSantis’ battle with Disney by inviting the company to her state of South Carolina, but added the caveat that her state is ‘very anti-woke.’
The Disney feud cost Florida 2,000 jobs and Haley slammed DeSantis on his attacks on businesses.
‘When they went and criticized him, he got thin-skinned and suddenly started to fight back,’ Haley said. ‘We don’t need government fighting against our private industries. We are not woke in South Carolina. I will always invite businesses to come to South Carolina. But the one thing you don’t do is government doesn’t bully our businesses.’