Rick Scott still hopes ‘cooler heads prevail’ in Ron DeSantis, Disney war

Despite the battle between Ron DeSantis and The Walt Disney Co. heading to federal court, a Florida Senator is hoping the parties can resolve the issue.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott is saying he thinks “people have got to figure out how to come together and start working together.”

“I mean, we’ve got to (let) cooler heads prevail,” Scott told Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade, echoing what he said weeks ago on the subject.

Asked about the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which DeSantis phased out after the entertainment company’s opposition to the 2022 Parental Rights in Education legislation, Scott diverged from DeSantis’ recent take that the special taxing district had to be eliminated.

“As long as they’re doing their job,” Scott said when asked if he was comfortable with Disney’s former governing structure. “We’ve got a variety of special taxing districts in Florida. And so they’re set up to basically create development for them. We’ve got a variety of them.”

Scott did add, however, that “you always have to look at them,” noting he did as much when he “first got elected as Governor.”

“We did a review of our special taxing districts to make sure they were doing the right things and, and I was cautious about ever expanding them,” Scott said.

DeSantis did more than a review, of course. The Governor signed legislation changing Disney’s special district in the wake of the company opposing 2022’s Parental Rights in Education law, leading to Disney filing a federal lawsuit against DeSantis and other state parties for a “targeted campaign of government retaliation.”

DeSantis is leaning into the fight, saying the former Reedy Creek Improvement District was “not good for Florida” Thursday during his current overseas trade mission, his first remarks since the suit.

Scott isn’t the only Florida Senator not willing to fully endorse DeSantis’ moves. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is raising concerns of his own.

“I do worry that if this happens too many times, businesses that are thinking about coming to Florida are saying, ‘Maybe we don’t want to go there because if we get into a firestorm with them politically, they’re going to come after our business again’,” Rubio said, saying that’s still a “hypothetical issue.”