PORTLAND, Ore. — Editor's Note: The video in the player above is from after the bill passed both the Florida House and Senate.
President Joe Biden wasn't shy about commenting on the apparent rift between the Republican party in Florida and Walt Disney World during two Democratic National Committee fundraisers Thursday.
While speaking at the Portland Yacht Club, Biden said today's Republican party is not the one your parents likely grew up with saying, "this is not your father’s Republican Party, by any stretch of the imagination. This is the MAGA Party. Not a joke."
"And it’s not even conservative in a traditional sense of conservative. It’s mean. It’s ugly. It’s the way — look what’s happening down in Florida. (Inaudible), they’re going after Mickey Mouse. (Laughter.) (Inaudible.) I mean, seriously, think about it," he later added, per a White House transcript of the event.
The president's comments came the same day that a bill aiming to eliminate a handful of special tax districts across the state — including one that essentially allows Walt Disney World to operate its own local government — was sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis' desk.
Under the bill, any independent special district established by a "special act" prior to the ratification of the Florida Constitution on Nov. 5, 1968, and has not been reestablished, re-ratified, or reconstituted since would be dissolved.
If signed into law, said independent special districts would be dissolved by June 1, 2023. Any independent special district dissolved would have the ability to be reestablished at a later date "pursuant to the requirements and limitations of this chapter."
That would impact Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District, which pundits have argued is being targeted as part of the fallout between Disney and DeSantis over the Parental Rights in Education law that's been dubbed by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" bill.
"There’s nothing conservative about deciding you’re going to throw Disney out of its present posture because — Mickey Mouse? In fact, do you think we should be not be able to say, you know, “gay”? I mean, what’s going on here? What the hell is going on? And it’s just — so, I don’t believe it’s who the vast majority of American people are," Biden also said at a later DNC fundraiser in Seattle.