Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty
on Saturday described talk of banning Chick-Fil-A over its opposition
to gay marriage as “chilling.”
Pawlenty, a Mitt Romney surrogate whose
name is on the short list to share the GOP ticket with Romney, told a
group of supporters at a Romney campaign event in Cary, North
Carolina that he supports Chick-Fil-A.
“Now you have the police power of
government intimidating and threatening people, being used to
intimidate and threaten people based on their free speech rights and
their religious views,” Pawlenty said. “I mean it's chilling. I
mean it's stunning, it is jaw-dropping. And so I think strong people
who see this need to stand up and say no we don't do that in the
United States.”
Pawlenty was referring to Mayors Rahm
Emanuel of Chicago, Thomas Menino of Boston and Ed Lee of San
Francisco, who chided Chick-Fil-A President Dan Cathy for saying that
gay marriage is “inviting God's judgment on our nation.” Menino
said he would block efforts by the company to open a restaurant in
his city.
(Related: Mayors
Michael Bloomberg, Ed Lee differ on Chick-Fil-A ban.)
Pawlenty noted that his chicken strips
and waffle fries lunch from Chick-Fil-A “was awesome.”
(Related: Sarah
& Todd Palin tweet support for Chick-Fil-A.)