Rick Santorum turns South Carolina massacre into political fodder

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Thursday June 18, 2015 · 9:59 AM PDT

2015/06/18 · 09:59

U.S. Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum addresses his Michigan primary night rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, February 28, 2012.  REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES  - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS)

Speaking to Joe Piscopo on his New York radio station AM 970, Rick Santorum took the tragedy that unfolded in South Carolina last night and turned it into a talking point on the imaginary "assault on religious liberty" he and others on the religious right have been trumpeting. He started out on the right foot, saying "It’s obviously a crime of hate. Again, we don’t know the rationale, but what other rationale could there be?" But then Santorum couldn't help himself. Instead of focusing on the lives that were taken, he quickly broadened the scope to score cheap political points for his campaign.

You talk about the importance of prayer in this time and we’re now seeing assaults on our religious liberty we’ve never seen before. It’s a time for deeper reflection beyond this horrible situation.

It's not surprising that Santorum would use this moment to fearmonger to Christians, but it is still sickening. That there is an concerted "assault on religious liberty" in this country is a laughably empty controversy dreamed up by fundamentalists in response to the marriage equality debate. To drag it into the murders that took place at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is beyond human decency, even for a Republican presidential candidate of Rick Santorum's caliber.

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Rick Santorum turns South Carolina massacre into political fodder

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