Santorum: Chick-fil-A Is Awesome

The antigay former senator appears to support the call for an 'appreciation day' for the company, under fire for executives' antigay views.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

July 25 2012 6:25 PM EST

November 17 2015 5:28 AM EST

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Mike Huckabee isn't the only former Republican presidential hopeful supporting antigay company Chick-fil-A these days: Rick Santorum tweeted from a Chick-fil-A restaurant today about the chain's "awesome" food and made an apparent reference to Huckabee's call for a Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.

Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator known for his staunch opposition to LGBT equality, tweeted that he and his children were "enjoying chick-in-strips and awesome peach shake at Chick-fil-A." He added, "See you here next Wednesday," which will be August 1, the day Huckabee has called on consumers to patronize Chick-fil-A restaurants.

On his Facebook page for the event, Huckabee says, "I have been incensed at the vitriolic assaults on the Chick Fil-A company because the CEO, Dan Cathy, made comments recently in which he affirmed his view that the Biblical view of marriage should be upheld," adding that the company "is being smeared by vicious hate speech and intolerant bigotry from the left."

In a Washington Post column published yesterday, Dana Milbank wrote that the controversy over the company's antigay donations and Cathy's affirmation of his opposition to marriage equality "might have wasted away, but Huckabee fed it." Noting that Cathy tried to retreat from his statement, Milbank added, "Huck should let him go -- and stop turning people into Christian warriors simply because they want to Eat Mor Chikin."