Ron DeSantis Says He’ll ‘Chip In’ For Defense Of Man Who ‘Beheaded’ Satanic Display at State Capitol
Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Friday that he would “chip in” to the legal defense fund for the man charged in Iowa for destroying and “beheading” a satanic statue displayed at the Iowa state capitol.
Last week the Satanic Temple of Iowa put a statue of Satan on display at the state capitol as a subversive response to Christmas, angering many in the state and prompting a conservative backlash against Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has endorsed DeSantis for 2024.
After the story went big, DeSantis was asked about it at a CNN town hall and blamed the satanic display on Donald Trump.
“Lo and behold, the Trump administration gave them approval to be under the IRS as a religion. So that gave them the legal ability to potentially do it,” he said.
News broke on Thursday that the display had been vandalized and the statue “beheaded,” as authorities informed the Temple. Later that day, 35-year-old Mississippi man Michael Cassidy, a Navy veteran, claimed responsibility for the vandalism and was charged in the incident after turning himself in.
A legal defense fund was quickly put together for Cassidy, with prominent contributors like Charlie Kirk’s Turning Points USA and the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh among the contributors.
The crowdfunding effort was paused by Cassidy, a former Republican candidate for office, after raising $20,000. However many conservatives on X (formerly Twitter) continued to seek to offer support, including Gov. DeSantis on Friday.
“Satan has no place in our society and should not be recognized as a ‘religion’ by the federal government,” he wrote. “I’ll chip in to contribute to this veteran’s legal defense fund. Good prevails over evil — that’s the American spirit.”
Satan has no place in our society and should not be recognized as a "religion" by the federal government. I'll chip in to contribute to this veteran's legal defense fund.
Good prevails over evil — that's the American spirit. https://t.co/p1vmTcl8c9
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 15, 2023
The co-founder of the Satanic Temple appeared on CNN Thursday night, during which he called DeSantis a “pathetic little coward” in the same sentence in which he said he’d be “happy to debate” the Florida governor over unspecified topics.
