Rick Santorum has come to the aide of
Chick-Fil-A, defending the chicken restaurant from criticism
expressed by Mayors Thomas Menino of Boston and Rahm Emanuel of
Chicago.
After Chick-Fil-A President Dan Cathy
conceded that his company is opposed to gay marriage and supports
groups opposed to the institution (donating $5 million between 2003
and 2010), Menino wrote a scathing letter to Cathy in which he said
that his fast-food chain was not welcome in Boston.
“I was angry to learn on the heels of
your prejudiced statements about your search for a site to locate in
Boston. There is no place for discrimination on Boston's Freedom
Trail and no place for your company alongside it. When Massachusetts
became the first state in the country to recognize equal marriage
rights, I personally stood on City Hall Plaza to greet same sex
couples coming here to be married. It would be an insult to them and
to our city's long history of expanding freedom to have a Chick-fil-A
across the street from that spot,” Menino
wrote.
Emanuel piled on, saying:
“Chick-Fil-A's values are not Chicago values. They're not
respectful of our residents, our neighbors and our family members.
And if you're gonna be part of the Chicago community, you should
reflect Chicago values.”
Menino and Emanuel are co-chairs of the
group Mayors for the Freedom to Marry.
Appearing on CNBC's Kudlow Report,
Santorum criticized the mayors, calling their comments “hateful.”
"You just keep seeing this more
and more, which is the absolute intolerance of the left in America.
There can be no dissent from what their position is. If you dissent,
if you disagree, you are to be punished. You are to be castigated.
You are to be barred from doing business.”
"This is why the Huguenots came to
America, this is why the Dutch reform, the Catholics – so many came
to this country because they wanted religious freedom. They didn't
want the government telling them what to believe in. That they
couldn't say things in public. That they had to keep it to
themselves. And if they didn't do that that they would lose
privileges, that they would lose the opportunity to make a living.”
"This is not America, and this is
why I think you're seeing such a backlash to these hateful comments
by the part of these city leaders."
(Related: Rick
Santorum supports Mike Huckabee's “Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day.”)