The White House contrasted Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) feud with Disney and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s (R-AR) “crazy versus normal” line of argument in her rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech.
“I don’t know about you all, but I certainly would not get into a fight with Mickey Mouse,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a gaggle on Air Force One as Biden was traveling to speak in Florida. Reporters laughed at her comment.
“I don’t think that’s what Gov. Sanders, as you heard from her rebuttal, I don’t think that’s what she meant when she said that there’s a choice between normal and crazy,” she said.
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“The president, as you know, is in Florida today to talk about very real things that matter to Floridians, as I mentioned expanding affordable healthcare and protecting Medicare and Social Security from dangerous attacks by Republican officials,” Jean-Pierre said, adding that Biden would continue to “call out” the GOP on these topics.
Biden has hit DeSantis on Disney before. “In Florida, going after Mickey Mouse, for God's sake,” he said last June.
But the latest comments are a sign that the White House is pushing back on the so-called culture war as Republicans lean into those issues. Other than abortion, Biden minimized references to social issues in the State of the Union, while Sanders emphasized them in her response.
“Most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing cultural war,” Sanders said. “We didn’t start and never wanted to fight. Every day, we are told we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols.”
“That’s not normal,” she said. “It’s crazy and it’s wrong.” According to Sanders, “the Biden administration is doubling down on crazy.”
Republicans underperformed expectations in the 2022 midterm elections. Sanders, however, won 63% of the vote in Arkansas, and DeSantis was reelected with 59% of the vote in Florida.
Biden is centering his Florida remarks on Social Security and Medicare after a bruising State of the Union back-and-forth with congressional Republicans about whether they were going to cut these programs.
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Florida has traditionally been a battleground state, but it has trended Republican in recent years. It is also the home of both DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, two of Biden’s likeliest 2024 opponents, and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Biden’s main foil in the midterm elections and beyond.
DeSantis has pushed to strip Disney World of its self-governing status, a move he has framed as fighting back against “woke capitalism” and cronyism rather than culture warring per se.