Things got a little heated between conservative commentator Megyn Kelly and GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday.
In a sit-down interview for Sirius XM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show,” the former Fox News host pressed the governor on his recent dealings with two giant conglomerates — Anheuser-Busch InBev and Disney.
“You, in my view, are pretty quick to use the power of the state against certain corporations you don’t like,” Kelly said.
She questioned if the hopeful presidential candidate was being hypocritical and doing the thing the left does.
Bud Light was up first. The beer was thrust into controversy when the company decided to send transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney a can with his face on it. The move sparked immediate backlash resulting in the company losing its No. 1 beer spot and billions in revenue.
DeSantis called for “an investigation into AB InBev’s actions regarding their Bud Light marketing campaign and falling stock prices” in a July 20 letter to Florida’s State Board of Administration.
In the interview with Kelly, DeSantis defended his actions, saying the company’s misfire caused its stock to lower and thus impact Florida’s pension fund, as the state holds Anheuser-Busch InBev stock.
While DeSantis said that as an American he no longer supports the beer company, he added the state is “defending the people that are beneficiaries of the pension,” citing the teachers, police and firefighters of the Sunshine State.
As Kelly pressed on why Florida needed to investigate AB InBev, DeSantis returned to the bottom line — a decline in stock prices hurt the individuals who have money invested.
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Next up was Disney.
In 2022, DeSantis passed the Parental Rights in Education Act, which prohibits Florida public schools from teaching third-grade students and younger about sexual orientation or gender identity and limits the information taught in higher grades.
Disney decided to issue a statement in response, saying, “Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that.”
DeSantis told Kelly that Disney was “taking their corporate resources to basically attack parents’ rights in Florida and overturn a core state policy.”
As the governor explained that the company deviated from what is “antithetical to our values in Florida,” the state decided the House of Mouse needed to “live under the same laws” as other companies — Universal Studios and Sea World being used as examples.
“I get it, I get it,” Kelly said. “But I don’t want a President Gavin Newsom doing this to conservative companies or companies who have a more conservative viewpoint.”
DeSantis argued it wasn’t fair to other corporations, as Disney was the only one provided with tax breaks and the ability to control its own government.
He added that if Disney felt the need to expand, it would have been within its rights to seize the property of individuals who lived in subdivisions outside of Disney property per the previous agreement the conglomerate had with the state.
“Was this an arrangement that was justifiable?” DeSantis questioned. “The answer is no.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
