Just before Christmas, Ron DeSantis blasts Bethlehem as a ‘disgrace’ and a ‘pigsty’
Image via Ron DeSantis campaign

Desantis iowa campaign
The Florida Governor told Iowans just 'how nasty it was' Wednesday.

Ron DeSantis isn’t backing down from his pejorative position about Bethlehem, the city of Jesus Christ’s birth, as Christmas approaches.

During a campaign stop in Iowa, the Florida Governor maligned the religiously significant city as a “pigsty” and a “disgrace,” which he attributed to it being under the control of “Palestinian Arabs.”

“And when I visited Bethlehem, honestly, it was a pigsty, it was a disgrace, how nasty it was,” DeSantis said in Clinton Wednesday.

“So, you have this beautiful church that commemorates the birth of Christ and it’s not, it’s beautiful, but you come out of the church and they built this, like, massive mosque towering over it. That’s intentional. That’s what they would do,” DeSantis added.

The Governor seems to be referring to Omar Ibn Al Khattab, which is the sole mosque in Bethlehem’s Old City, opposite the Church of the Nativity.

Lonely Planet notes it “was built in 1860 on land granted by the Greek Orthodox Church in honor of Omar, the Prophet Muhammad’s father-in-law, who in 637 took Jerusalem from the flagging Byzantines and then stopped for prayer at the Christian Church of the Nativity.”

The Pact of Omar declared it would forever be a Christian place of worship.

DeSantis had bashed Bethlehem before on the 2024 trail.

“In fact, Bethlehem is controlled by the Palestinian Arabs. And so there, there’s a church where you can go where they, they say, is where Christ was born. And it’s a beautiful church. But (when) you walk out, first of all, it’s like a pigsty. The city, it’s not well-kept. And then they built this massive mosque right in front of it to like tower over it,” DeSantis commented at the 2023 Presidential Thanksgiving FAMiLY Forum in Iowa.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. His work also can be seen in the Washington Post, the New York Post, the Washington Times, and National Review, among other publications. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


57 comments

  • ScienceBLVR

    December 20, 2023 at 8:52 pm

    Perhaps he has some great pics of Arabs pooping on the street he can share, so we can compare with his CA ones. I mean, everyone poops, right? Pictures of excrement seems to be one of his favorite campaign props..

    • Earl Pitts "Muzzy Scholar Emeritis" American

      December 21, 2023 at 7:04 am

      Good mornting America,
      As The World’s Premier Expert on Muzzys I, Earl Pitts American, can assure you that all the Muzzys world-wide, of course pray that somehow – by hook or by crook Biden gets re-elected. Since that is unlikely the Muzzys pray for anybody but Our Next Potus Ron Desantis.
      Muzzys world wide are shaking in their weird pointy toe “Aladen Style” shoes at the thought of Ron, The Ronald, DeSantis, holding their pointy toed feet to the fire.
      Thank you America,
      Earl Pitts ” Sage Muzzy Go-To Expert” American

      • Mr.Speaker

        December 21, 2023 at 7:19 am

        Thanks Earl,
        Its going to be great when Ron restores our nation to our rightfull top dog world super power status and bring those Muzzys to heel.
        Once the Muzzys pledge their feility to Ron, just watch, as the Chinks and Ruskies, immedieatly fall in line and their leaders fight with each other to come to Ron, on their knees, and kiss Ron’s ring (y’all thought I was going to say @55).
        If only the world had more Earls we would be a better place. Newt

      • Teresa

        December 21, 2023 at 9:37 pm

        Huh?

    • AJ

      December 21, 2023 at 12:15 pm

      His whole campaign is nothing but poop. Everything he says is poop. He looks like a midget pile of poop in lifts and high heels.. I guarantee he smells like poop. YUCK. The most detestable human pile of excrement ever pushed out of a woman. I still question if he’s actually human? He’s definitely one of the most vile on the planet, if so. Not to mention unfunctionable.. He’s just gross! As a said.. A 5’7″ PILE OF VAPID, DISGUSTING 💩💩💩. Just like his 🍊🐷 daddy dump. Except he’s a much larger pile. He’s actually jumbo sized 💩❗️

      • Earl Pitts "Sage Political Polling Scholar Emeritis" American

        December 21, 2023 at 3:45 pm

        AJ my man,
        Somehow you have gotten your mind twisted away from the “Sage Wisdom of Earl Pitts American”.
        Your drug addiction, homertestical sexual proclivities, and your addiction to pedophilia may have had a little something something to do with it…..but who really knows or cares why you are so mentally twisted.
        I, Earl Pitts American, suggest you memorize my post of sage knowledge above. By doing so it will drive the Devil from your mind and you will become a Great American Hero within 72 short hours.
        Thanks AJ,
        EPA

      • Jay Gilpin

        December 23, 2023 at 1:09 pm

        Well said 👏FDJT and Ron Desatan vote for the Conservative
        GOP
        Party
        Cheney/ Kinzenger 2024

    • Florida's Dr. Bob

      December 22, 2023 at 12:24 pm

      Check out his back yard photos.
      Used diapers everywhere.

      • Ron Forrest Ron

        December 23, 2023 at 10:56 am

        Used diapers, filled with undigested crayons. and corn from Iowa, so claims Rhonda. Prove it Rhonda. Where’s your poop picture of your family’s poop full of Iowan corn?

        • My Take

          December 23, 2023 at 12:18 pm

          Just a guess but I’d bet that very little of Iowa corn goes into humans.
          Pigs, cows, chickens, turkeys, even dog food I think.

          • Ron Forrest Ron

            December 26, 2023 at 8:48 pm

            That’s right. Iowa is just field corn. It would probably be Walmart corn in DuhSantis family poo pics, so cheap Chinese corn that confounds Ron and does not last

    • HighlyEvolved

      December 24, 2023 at 7:48 pm

      I guess that’s where he gets his Sh*t eating grin!

  • KathrynA

    December 20, 2023 at 9:00 pm

    He probably should look around at some of Florida–some areas look worse than Third World countries.

    • My Take

      December 20, 2023 at 10:03 pm

      The US State Department used to train new employees in small town and rural Florida, to familiarize them with Third World economic and social conditions.
      Florida pols went nuts when it became public.

    • JustaJew

      December 21, 2023 at 3:38 pm

      Hey…
      take you and your white privileged but back to where you came from!
      Don’t come here wanting to date us.. hooker!
      Shalom.

  • Kevin McBride

    December 20, 2023 at 9:11 pm

    Can’t this guy just be chill for like one second?
    All I’ve literally heard him too is whine, complain, moan and whine, insult and just be a generally unpleasant jerk about everything he encounters. Then he wonders why his numbers are in the toilet.

  • My Take

    December 20, 2023 at 9:58 pm

    A sty should seem familiar.
    Not physically, but it fits him mentally.

  • MH/Duuuval

    December 20, 2023 at 10:02 pm

    Thanks for the tour, AG — we need to learn more about Palestine, so it was interesting to learn about the Pact of Omar.

    Dee is pretty effective in the role of The Ugly American.

  • Veronica

    December 21, 2023 at 2:07 am

    Kind of like the manger, right? Born in a pigsty. An unwelcome stranger…there was no room at the inn. And so this is Christmas. I have been to Bethlehem and to the Holy Land. You can call it a pigsty…I was humbled and overwhelmed by the beautiful patch of land where God is understood by the Abrahamic religions..Jewish, Muslim and Christian.I only wish…and pray that Abraham will guide us through these troubled times.

  • My Take

    December 21, 2023 at 2:18 am

    Obnoxious egotisticàl “God’s Warrior” DeSScamus … I’m surprised he didn’t succumb to Jerusalem Sýndrome and wander around in a bedsheet declaŕimg himself, er, Himself, the Second Coming.

    • Ron Forrest Ron

      December 22, 2023 at 7:24 am

      He wanted to, but he had already cut eye holes in all his sheets (and not for Halloween)

      • My Take

        December 23, 2023 at 9:55 am

        It can’t be coincidence that Klansmen basically wore a version of a dunce cap.

  • Sonja Fitch

    December 21, 2023 at 4:38 am

    Will this Desantis dude shut up??? Omg Desantis you have totally screwed Florida! Home owners insurance impossible! Health care-Covid failure! Racist sexist policies abound ! Education and free thought bullied into a submission! Get out Desantis!

    • Jay Gilpin

      December 23, 2023 at 1:14 pm

      Amen 🙏 kick DeSatan to the curb
      Before it’s late
      FDJT vote Conservative GOP
      party
      KIZINGER /CHENNEY
      Keep it real
      GOD blessed America with a Republic let’s keep it if we can

      • MH/Duuuval

        December 23, 2023 at 9:40 pm

        This may be fake since I assume the source meant Kinzinger and Cheney.

  • Dont Say FLA

    December 21, 2023 at 7:12 am

    Bet there’s no crayons ground into the carpet there

  • Puddin' Booger Eater

    December 21, 2023 at 7:53 am

    Who said something is a disgrace and a pig sty?

    WHO said THAT?

    LOL

    Must not be enough boogers stuck to the wall over the urinals for Rhonda’s taste, rather, Rhonda’s tasting delight.

    Some disgruntled folks who stand to pee wipe boogers on the wall.

    Others eat those boogers.

  • Richard Russell

    December 21, 2023 at 9:43 am

    Sorry I won’t be around to see who wins the race for dominance: the Chinese Communists or the Muslims. But it sure won’t be the USA with all the Woke p…ies in charge. Americans get some b..s and throw out the p…ies and take back America in 2024 or else….

    • MH/Duuuval

      December 21, 2023 at 10:51 am

      Parity among many might be better for everyone involved.

    • Words R Us

      December 21, 2023 at 1:52 pm

      It’s funny that you are calling for Americans to get some balls and throw out the pussies, but you don’t actually type those words because you are apparently worried you’ll be censored. Not very ballsy of you.

    • Dont Say FLA

      December 21, 2023 at 2:01 pm

      Woke Pies? Sounds yummy. Where’s that at? I got to get me some of them Woke Pies!

      • Silly Wabbit

        December 21, 2023 at 4:31 pm

        They good!

        • MH/Duuuval

          December 21, 2023 at 10:09 pm

          A la mode is the best way to consume pie.

          • Dont Say FLA

            December 22, 2023 at 7:27 am

            Me like pie!

            Pie is gooood!

            Mmmmmmm! Pie… Pie. Pie. Pie. Pie. Pie. Pie. Pie.

            {looks around} PIE!

            When come back, bring pie…

    • Jay Gilpin

      December 23, 2023 at 1:15 pm

      Amen 🙏 kick DeSatan to the curb
      Before it’s late
      FDJT vote Conservative GOP
      party
      KIZINGER /CHENNEY
      Keep it real
      GOD blessed America with a Republic let’s keep it if we can

  • Thomas Kaspar

    December 21, 2023 at 12:21 pm

    You’d think that Jesus would want his hometown to be a nice and prosperous town. But he has no power to do anything about that because he’s not real.

    • Dont Say FLA

      December 22, 2023 at 7:32 am

      Thomas we are on the same page for once. If God Jesus Holy Spirit and all the other pseudonyms for the multi-personality disordered diety can’t do his second coming without Jews controlling Israel, just how weak and ineffective is this fella?

      I heard generic vee a gara is 87 cent these day, maybe they should get some of that to alleviate the impotence and then Netanyahu wouldn’t need to be committing genocide on all Palestinians for what some dicks, Hamas, did after they, oh hey, got elected but then never left office. Hmmm. How about that.

      MAGA voters take note: Hamas got elected but then never left office. Again, Hamas got elected but then never left office. One more time for the slow MAGAs, Hamas got elected but then never left office. Who else tried to do that? I forget. Hmmmm.

      One last time:

      Hamas got elected but then never left office. Just like Donald Javina Trump attempted but failed to do.

  • My Take

    December 21, 2023 at 1:32 pm

    Even the Mother Mary despises DeSScumtis.

  • My Take

    December 21, 2023 at 2:25 pm

    Saint Peter will show him a real pig sty of sorts.
    It will be filthy perhaps, but not germy.
    Heat and sulfur kill germs.

  • AnitaBee

    December 21, 2023 at 3:27 pm

    Little DeSatan is a pathological liar. He’s desperate for votes

  • Bear Jew with a Bat!

    December 21, 2023 at 3:47 pm

    All you liberal white privileged retards will never understand honor! Yisrael belongs to Hashem! Not the digusting piggie fat Arabs who ruined Bethlehem. They are currently torturing the Arab Christians!
    You digusting retards.. stay at of Florida and don’t visit us!
    You have your privileges because of Vets like Ron and my family!
    shalom

    • Earl Pitts "Sage Political Polling Scholar Emeritis" American

      December 21, 2023 at 3:56 pm

      Sage wisdom Bear,
      Everybody pay attention to Bear and stop being so crazy.
      EPA

    • My Take

      December 21, 2023 at 7:40 pm

      If the Israelis would get their shabby businesses out of beach towns from the Carolinas to Florida those beach areas would be a lot less tacky.

    • Dont Say FLA

      December 22, 2023 at 7:35 am

      USA-ians have their “privileges” (which many call “rights”) due to being humans. They were written into the Constitution to, supposedly, guarantee the government not abridge them.

      We have nothing to thank Ron or your family for. The vets that last did anything to “keep America safe” did it in the 1940s. They are all dead now.

      Rhonda get zero credit for being unemployable despite their Ivy League degrees and having to join the military because he couldn’t pass any interviews except the interview where some guys say “Maybe we can make a man out this guy. Maybe. If not enough people with more potential show up, we’ll give him a try.”

      • Dont Say FLA

        December 22, 2023 at 7:40 am

        Although TBH in the 1940s was just Hawaii, and keeping Hawaii safe was really keeping US Pacific strategy and ability reparable after it was decimated by Japanese.

        It’s not as if 1940s Hawaiians even wanted to be part of the USA. They still don’t. Not even today. Just like the folks who lived in the lower 48 before it became USA.

        So really, we have the Revolutionary War veterans to thank, but mostly that was France and the Atlantic Ocean that beat England int he US Revolutionary War. Yes, France. Ironically enough, France. And an ocean.

    • Josh Green

      December 22, 2023 at 3:01 pm

      “Yisrael belongs to Hashem!”

      Do these words mean anything to anybody who isn’t suffering from some mass delusion?

      • Dont Say FLA

        December 22, 2023 at 4:26 pm

        Yes: When you hear those words, you know it’s time to cross the street to get away from the crazy person.

      • MH/Duuuval

        December 23, 2023 at 9:45 pm

        Israelis — Jews, Christians, and Muslims — dig hashish?

    • My Take

      December 26, 2023 at 7:14 am

      A raving kook from a tribe of ķooks.

  • Bryce the Very Stable Genius

    December 22, 2023 at 7:00 pm

    So Ron, um, your the governor of *Florida*…the Meth Capital of the Known Universe. There are so many freaks and weirdos in Florida doing crazy stuff, that they have a *name* for it – “Florida Man”!!
    And last time I was in Jacksonville the Downtown smelled like a dirty urinal that had been used by coffee drinkers…and Jacksonville Beach was a giant ashtray.
    You have NO BUSINESS judging anyone else’s city, you unlikable loser.
    Oh, go stuff some more lifts in your shoes.

    • MH/Duuuval

      December 24, 2023 at 2:08 pm

      That smell in Jax is one of the best in the world: coffee being brewed at the Maxwell House plant.

  • tom palmer

    December 24, 2023 at 10:28 pm

    It would be nice for once to hear what
    gov. DeSantis is for rather what he is against.

  • My Take

    December 24, 2023 at 11:54 pm

    Bethlehem calls DwarfSSantis a pygmy.

  • El Vezzz

    December 27, 2023 at 11:09 am

    Never meet your heroes, Ron.
    Usually the reality of them disappoints.

    And in your case, Ron, sometimes you try to Single White Female them. Or rather, you try to Single Orange Dingle your hero.

    What’s Jennifer Jason Leigh up to these days? Her SWF character would be the perfect running mate VP for Rhonda.

    You think we don’t elect fictional characters in the GOP? Think again. That’s all today’s GOP ate anymore. Insta Drama Queens.

  • Emma Farmer

    December 27, 2023 at 11:18 am

    This candidate comes to Iowa, a land of Jesus and pig farming, seeking our votes.

    And how does he go about it? Seeking our votes? He disparages both Bethlehem and pig stys.

    That sure is some brilliance at work right there. Ivy league brilliance, I tell ya.

    Ron’s Intelligence Quota? 110 or thereabouts, I’d guess.

    Their Social Quota? 2 on a good day.

  • It's Complicated

    December 28, 2023 at 12:22 pm

    I recall about 25 years ago an elected official in a neighboring county making the comment at a public meeting that one of the unincorporated communities in the county, ‘Looked like a dump.’ When pressed on the issue by members of that community he replied, ‘It’s not my opinion that it looks like a dump, it’s my observation that it looks like a dump.’ Anyone who visited that community would agree with him, but it’s one of those things that is probably best left unsaid.

  • Jeff

    December 28, 2023 at 7:38 pm

    Is this website intended as satire? Or are there really so many racists reading it? Wow. I mean, wow.

Comments are closed.


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