DeSantis Eyes Expansion of Anti-LGBTQ “Don’t Say Gay” Law

Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced today that Fox News will host the first official Republican debate of the party’s 2024 presidential primary race in August in Milwaukee.

Jen Psaki spotlighted Sunday the changing talking points, and even hypocrisies, of several Donald Trump-supporting, MAGA Republicans when it comes to defunding the police. The five-minute “Inside With Jen Psaki” segment breaks down how, despite many elected officials rallying around “backing the blue” and heralding “law and order” in the 2020 aftershocks of George Floyd’s murder, the likes of House representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan — and even Florida Gov.

Katie Reul editor Premiering the night before Easter, the latest episode of “Saturday Night Live” opened with a serene image of the sketch show cast members sitting at a long table, perfectly costumed and positioned to parallel Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” But the tranquility was short-lived with the arrival of cast member James Austin Johnson, who took over the cold open by telling the story of Easter as a monologue delivered by Donald Trump. Last week’s episode also opened with a Trump spoof after the former president was indicted by a grand jury. On April 4, Trump pled not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. His arrest and arraignment made him the first president in U.S. history to ever be charged with a crime after leaving office. And this milestone was also addressed with this week’s cold open.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is escalating his war with The Walt Disney Co., outlining a set of moves against the company in what is amounting to a standoff between a potential 2024 presidential candidate and the entertainment giant.

Selome Hailu Judy Blume stood up for the right to read at Variety‘s Power of Women luncheon, presented by Lifetime, in New York City on Tuesday. The resident Floridian spoke passionately against Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent moves to censor public education in the state. “I live in Key West — even though we like to pretend it’s not in Florida — we have the same governor,” Blume said to the crowd. “A governor who wants to control everything, starting with what kids can think, what they can know, what they can question, what they can learn, and now even what they can talk about. We have a legislator who’s trying to put through a bill preventing girls in elementary school from talking about periods… Good luck there.”

For the first time, Bob Iger is speaking out and addressing the ongoing battle between the company and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He also answered a frankly bizarre question about the company’s so-called “woke agenda,” both with the kind of poise and composure that made him such a favorite of his employees as well as the shareholders, during the Disney Shareholders meeting.“Let me if you don’t mind let me address this issue which I haven’t really done much publicly. But I’d love the opportunity just to put it all in perspective.

Governor Ron DeSantis, seeking to gain an upper hand in his battle with The Walt Disney Co., on Monday ordered an investigation into the company’s move to retain extensive control over its sprawling Florida theme park property.

Bob Iger is back, debonaire, relaxed, articulate and talking up Disney IP via video in front of Walt Disney Word, where the company appears to have outmaneuvered Ron DeSantis for control. He also fianlly spoke his mind on the simmering feud, telling the company’s virtual annual shareholder meeting today that the governor’s apparent “retaliation” against Disney for exercising a right to free speech “is not only anti-business, but anti-Florida,” given the jobs, taxes, resources and revenue Disney provides the state.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Returned CEO Bob Iger made a rare public comment about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ moves to “punish” Disney for its position against Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” Bill last year during the company’s annual shareholders meeting Monday, calling the decision “not just anti-business, but anti-Florida.” “It seems like he’s decided to retaliate against us,” Iger said, referring to DeSantis’ power struggle with Disney in Florida, the home of Disney World, in an attempt “to punish a company for its exercise of a constitutional right.” “That seems really wrong to me,” he added. “We’re currently planning now to invest over $17 billion Disney World over the next 10 years,” Iger said, noting that Disney estimates this will lead to 13,000 new jobs within the company and “thousands of indirect jobs” in the state, thus bringing in more taxes for Floriday.

On International Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31), hundreds of students from across Florida descended on the Capitol to protest the legislature’s fast-tracking of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ agenda of book banning and classroom censorship and assaults on academic and medical freedom.

a recent Quinnipiac poll, as Pskai pointed out, a whopping 90% of Republicans see the move from DA Alvin Bragg as politically motivated; 70% of independents agree along with 30% of Democrats.“It doesn’t really matter that that is based entirely on the phony claims by leading Republicans,” Psaki said of the poll’s results. “But the thing is, there’s absolutely nothing to gain by adding more fuel to that fire.”Currently, that fire is being fueled by the likes of House speaker Kevin McCarthy, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Trump himself.

The Saturday, April 1, episode of Saturday Night Live started like any other — until Colin Jost did not receive any laughs during his “Weekend Update” segment.

Governor Ron DeSantis promised more to come on the state’s increasingly convoluted fight with Disney to wrest back the company’s control of a swath of central Florida that is home to Walt Disney World.

faces more than 30 business fraud charges related to his role in a series of hush money payments made to the porn star during the 2016 election.“Once she heard, Stormy Daniels was like, ‘Oh, so this is what it feels like to be satisfied,'” Fallon joked.The host also presented what he said was Trump’s reaction, in the form of a video.It’s the first time a former president has ever been formally charged with a crime. The indictment remains under seal, so the details are not yet public.Fallon also noted that the machinations around Trump’s arrest could impact another potential 2024 presidential candidate, whose rivalry with the former president has been heating up in recent weeks.“If Trump refuses to surrender,” Fallon quipped, “Florida governor Ron DeSantis would have to approve a request to send him to New York.”Then, imagining how DeSantis would respond in such a situation, Fallon said, “DeSantis is like, ‘Oh, it’s approved.

A grand jury indicted him earlier in the day on charges related to a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. “This evening we contacted Mr.

“We’re going to have to deal with it and correct it,” Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Board of Supervisors member Brian Aungst Jr. said today of a vote taken by the then Disney-controlled Reedy Creek Improvement District in February. “It’s a subversion of the will of the voters and the Legislature and the governor. It completely circumvents the authority of this board to govern.”

Piers Morgan and Donald Trump have locked horns after the former US president branded the presenter ‘ratings-challenged. ’The scathing remarks came ahead of the former Good Morning Britain presenter’s interview with the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, 44, which will be broadcast in full on Thursday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hasn’t officially declared himself a candidate for the 2024 presidential election at this point, and that’s fine by Whoopi Goldberg and the hosts of “The View.” That’s because, as Whoopi so bluntly put it on Thursday morning, DeSantis is “not ready for America.”To kick off the day’s Hot Topics discussion, the women discussed their opinions on how DeSantis has positioned himself politically thus far, particularly with his responses to twice-impeached former president Donald Trump’s attacks, as well as DeSantis’ own gripes about “wokeness.”When Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines began debating if DeSantis is actually playing a smart long game, having gone to both Yale and Harvard, Whoopi noted that DeSantis’ degrees don’t mean much to her.“Just because people have education, doesn’t mean they have any kind of real sense,” Whoopi said.

Piers Morgan and Donald Trump have locked horns after the former US president branded the presenter ‘ratings-challenged. ’The scathing remarks came ahead of the former Good Morning Britain presenter’s interview with the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, 44, which will be broadcast in full on Thursday.

Joe Harding, the now-former Florida Republican lawmaker who authored the extremist “Don’t Say Gay” bill could face up to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday afternoon to federal felony fraud charges in a scheme to obtain $150,000 in COVID-19 relief funds, according to Florida Politics‘ publisher Peter Scorsch.Harding, 35, was a construction project manager who started his own lawn care company. He quickly became a right-wing darling after his anti-LGBTQ legislation, officially the Parental Rights in Education Act, was embraced by Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, who signed it into law.Harding was charged in a December federal indictment with six counts of wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements in his plot to obtain $150,000 in COVID funds.He resigned from the legislature the following day.