ORLANDO, Fla. — Demonstrators holding Nazi flags and other racist propaganda were seen Saturday outside an entrance to Walt Disney World.
State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, tweeted a video she said was sent to her. The short video clip shows several people gathered outside the theme park in Orlando with Nazi flags and other white supremacist imagery at their sides.
"Nazis outside of Walt Disney World right now — absolutely disgusting," Eskamani wrote on Twitter.
The video has since garnered tens of millions of views since it was tweeted Saturday.
Warning: The following video depicts Nazi and racist imagery. Viewer discretion is advised.
Lisa Gause, a retired educator, told 10 Tampa Bay she was leaving Disney Springs just after 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 10, and was stopped at the corner of Hotel Plaza Boulevard and State Road 535 when she saw the group. That's when she snapped this photo. Gause's tweet had a message for DeSantis that read, "Your supporters standing together at the entrance to Disney Springs."
She noted to 10 Tampa Bay an Orange County deputy vehicle was across the road "keeping an eye out."
"We are aware of these groups that aim to agitate and incite people with anti-Semitic symbols and slurs. They are also aware of the law," the office said in a statement to USA Today. "The Orange County Sheriff’s Office deplores hate speech in any form, but people have the First Amendment right to demonstrate."
Shannon Watts, a founder of gun reform nonprofit Moms Demand Action, shared Gause's photo depicting what appears to be the same group of people seen in the above video. In addition to the Nazi flags and DeSantis 2024 flags, members of the group held signs depicting known hate symbols and white supremacist imagery.
"Two dozen white supremacists are outside the main Disney World entrance in Orlando right now, marching with signs featuring Gov DeSantis's face, swastikas, the n-word and homophobic slurs," Watts tweeted. "This is the 2023 Republican Party."
10 Tampa Bay has reached out to the governor's office for comment and is waiting to hear back.
In January 2022, DeSantis called a group of Nazi demonstrators on an Orlando overpass "jack****s" while claiming Democrats were using the incident as "some sort of political issue."
Months later in July, DeSantis remained silent while other Florida leaders condemned antisemitic demonstrators who turned up outside the Tampa Convention Center. The group was spotted with swastika signs and the SS symbol.
The demonstration happened outside a student summit held by the conservative organization Turning Point USA. At the time, a spokesperson for the group wrote in part that it "100% condemns those ideologies in the strongest of terms."
Former Democratic Congressman and gubernatorial nominee Charlie Crist, who was running against DeSantis at the time but lost to the governor in November, tweeted in part at the time, "We need a governor that'll forcefully condemn hate. DeSantis is coddling antisemitism because he views them as part of his base."
In May, DeSantis signed legislation that would make antisemitism and other hate speech or actions a third-degree felony.