During a town hall on CNN on Tuesday, 2024 Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reacted to the Satanic Temple display in Iowa’s Capitol Building and said that he believes the display should be removed and the group shouldn’t have been recognized as a church by the IRS as they were during the Trump administration. He also stated that the Satanic Temple wasn’t a religion the founders “were trying to create” and said, “We’re going to recognize Satan as a religion? That’s wrong.”
Moderator Jake Tapper asked, “Republicans are divided over a new Satanic Temple holiday display in the State Capitol building. Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) — who has endorsed you — she says it is, ‘absolutely objectionable.’ But ‘In a free society, the best response to objectionable speech is more speech,’ some Republicans are calling for it to come down. What do you think? Should that display be allowed in the Capitol?”
DeSantis responded, “So, it’s interesting, I heard this and then I was like, well, how did it get there? Is that even a religion? And 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. So, I don’t know what the legislature, what they — how they analyzed it. But it very well may be because of that ruling under Donald Trump that they may have had a legal leg to stand on. My view would be, that’s not a religion that the founding fathers were trying to create. But I do you think that IRS ruling — I was really surprised to see that they did that.”
He added, “[T]hey recognized it as a religion, because otherwise, you wouldn’t have been able to do it. I don’t think that was the right decision. We’re going to recognize Satan as a religion? That’s wrong.”
Tapper then asked, “But you think that they should take it down in the Capitol?”
DeSantis answered, “Yeah, look — I think if they are going to get sued on it, I think you fight that fight.”
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