Rick Santorum, Republican candidate for
president, claims CNN host Piers Morgan called him a “bigot” for
his opposition to gay marriage.
Santorum said he taped an interview on
Monday with the host of Piers Morgan Tonight scheduled for
broadcast at a later date, possibly Wednesday.
On Tuesday, during a campaign stop at
Pennsylvania State University, from which he earned a Bachelor's
degree in political science in 1980, Santorum riled against Morgan
for calling him a “bigot” during the interview.
The 53-year-old former senator from
Pennsylvania told students: “I had Piers Morgan call me a bigot.
Because I believe what the Catholic Church teaches with respect to
homosexuality. I'm a bigot! So, now I'm a bigot, because I believe
what the Bible teaches. Now, what 2000 years of teaching and moral
theology is now bigoted. And, of course, we don't elect bigots to
office, we don't give them professional licenses, we don't give them
preferential tax treatment. If you're a preacher and you preach
bigoted things, you think you're going to be allowed to have a 501(c)3
as a church? Of course not.”
Santorum
went on to say that marriage was a privilege, not a right, and that
gay couples don't qualify.