The Governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchinson has broken ranks with fellow GOP Governor Ron DeSantis saying it is a mistake for Republicans to ‘go after businesses and punish them because we disagree with what they said.’
Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, Hutchinson was referring to the ‘revenge’ political attack on Disney carried out by the Republican Governor of Florida.
Hutchinson said that DeSantis’ opposition to the ‘don’t say gay’ law violates the GOP’s very mantra of both limited and restrained government.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson says Florida Governor Ron DeSantis went against the Republican principle of restrained government by dissolving a 55-year-old tax law the benefited the company
‘I don’t believe that government should be punitive against private businesses because we disagree with them,’ the Arkansas governor said.
‘That’s not the right approach… to me it’s the old Republican principle of having a restrained government.’
DeSantis’ feud with Disney, the state’s largest private employer came over the ‘don’t say gay’ bill.
The law bans the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom in certain grades.
Hutchinson did not seem to any issues with the bill itself or DeSantis going after the LGBTQ+ community.
Hutchinson criticized DeSantis, pictured, for signing legislation stripping Disney World of a decades-old special agreement that allowed the theme park to govern itself
‘The law that was passed is to me common sense that in those grades, those lower grades, you shouldn’t be teaching sexual orientation, those matters that should not be covered at that age,’ he said.
Last week, DeSantis dissolved Disney’s 55-year right to self-government through its special taxing district in Florida.
DeSantis’s new law looks to eliminate all special taxing districts created before 1968.
Disney attempted to strike back at DeSantis by telling investors the state would not be able to dissolve its status until first paying off the company’s bond debts, believed to be about $1bn.
‘Let’s do the right thing. It’s a fair debate about the special tax privileges, I understand that debate. But let’s not go after businesses and punish them because we disagree with what they say.
LGBTQ employees protesting CEO Bob Chapek’s handling of the staff controversy over Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill are seen protesting in March outside the Burbank HQ
‘I disagree with a punitive approach to businesses. Businesses make mistakes, [Disney] shouldn’t have gone there, but we should not be punishing them for their private actions.’
DeSantis and Asa Hutchinson may well end up going head-to-head Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
During the same interview on Sunday, Hutchinson said he is considering a run, making clear that he is ‘not aligned’ with former President Donald Trump, another potential candidate.
Hutchinson, a former congressman and head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, is in his final year as governor of the southern state, with Arkansas law barring him from seeking a third four-year term.
Hutchinson has a long track record as a conservative, dating from his time as a George W. Bush administration official to the House of Representatives to the governor’s mansion in Little Rock
Hutchinson has criticized Trump’s continued efforts to discredit the 2020 presidential election in which Democrat Joe Biden defeated the businessman-turned-politician.
Trump has made false claims that the election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud.
Hutchinson said Trump’s decision on whether to run will not influence his own.
‘I’ve made it clear I think we ought to have a different direction in the future and so I’m not aligned with him on some of his endorsements, but also the direction he wants to take our country,’ Hutchinson said.
‘I think he did a lot of good things for our country, but we need to go a different direction. And so that’s not a factor in my decision-making process.’
Trump rebuked Hutchinson last year when the governor vetoed a Republican-backed bill passed by the state legislature to ban certain types of treatment for transgender youths. Hutchinson called the measure a government overreach. The legislature subsequently voted to override his veto.
‘Bye-bye Asa, that’s the end of him!’ Trump said in a statement at the time, dismissing the conservative governor as a ‘lightweight RINO,’ one of the former president’s favorite insults, meaning ‘Republican in name only.’
Hutchinson, who last week attended a political event in the pivotal early presidential primary state of New Hampshire, said he is passionate about border security, cracking down on criminal cartels and keeping in place a COVID-19 pandemic-related policy that lets U.S. authorities rapidly expel migrants, including asylum seekers, to Mexico and other nations.
Other potential Republican contenders in 2024 include DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Hutchinson has previously said that he would not support the former president if he ran for president in 2024
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk