Fox News Host Loses It Over Florida Festivus Pole Blocking the Baby Jesus (VIDEO)
Fox News host Gretchen Carlson recently expressed her outrage at the installation of a six-foot tall festivus pole at the Florida Capitol building in Tallahasee, arguing that the pole takes away from the true meaning of Christmas.
While speaking on the Dec. 10 broadcast of Fox News' "The Real Story," Carlson told her guests, including David Silverman of the American Atheists, Catholic League President Bill Donohue, and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach that she was "outraged" the festivus pole was recently approved as a holiday display at Florida's Capitol building.
"I am so outraged by this," Carlson said, adding, "Why do I have to drive around with my kids to look for a nativity scene and be, like, 'Oh, yeah, kids, look, there's baby Jesus behind the Festivus pole made out of beer cans!' It's nuts!"
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Donahue agreed with Carlson, saying: "We don't want to have the Klan out there on Martin Luther King Day with their monuments right next to a bust of Martin Luther King. We don't want to have neo-Nazis out there to stick it to Jews on Yom Kippur. And we shouldn't have people out there ready to trash Christianity given that proximity. Let them do it some other time in some other place."
American Atheist President David Silverman countered by saying the season of Christmas "doesn't belong to Christianity, it belongs to everybody," adding, "Christianity stole the season from the solstice."
In protest of a nativity scene placed at Florida's Capitol building, self-described militant atheist Chaz Stevens decided to erect a 6-foot tall festivus pole made entirely out of empty Pabst Blue Ribbon beer cans. The request was later approved by Gov. Rick Scott's (R) office, as the Capitol building has a policy that any group can put up a holiday display on its lawn as long as it is first approved by government officials.
The festivus holiday is a fake celebration coined by the 1990s sitcom "Seinfeld" as a form of protest against the commercialism of Christmas. Stevens admits that he too thinks the pole is ridiculous, but created the display more so as a protest to the nativity scene and all religious holiday displays. "What's the point? There is no point. It's ridiculous. This is the most ridiculous thing I could come up with," Stevens told the Associated Press in a recent interview. "This is about the separation of church and state."
