WASHINGTON -- On Dec. 30, a man threw glitter on Rick Santorum at a campaign stop in Johnston, Iowa, yelling, "Stop the hate! Taste the rainbow!" The incident was part of a spate of "glitter-bombing" of public figures, meant to protest anti-gay policies. It started in May, when activist Nick Espinosa threw glitter on Newt Gingrich.
When asked by conservative Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson about the glitter-bombing on Tuesday, Santorum said he felt "sorry" for the man.
It's one of those things where there are a lot of people out there who are hurting, who are struggling with a lot of different issues. My feeling is, that's part when you open yourself up to the public, you're going to get good things happen to you and not so nice things. What I'm taking the approach of is you move on. I feel sorry for that man that he felt like he was compelled he had to do that. Like I do, what I'm supposed to do, is you know, according to our faith, is to pray for them, and I hope people work that out.
Mickelson sympathized with Santorum, saying, "I'm not encouraging people to do this, but if you ever want to see hate, just enter Rick Santorum's name on the Internet and just see what the gay lobby has tried to do to Rick Santorum. If there ever was an example of seething, satanic, wicked hatred directed toward a decent person, it's that. And when I saw that guy do that to you, I just wish I had been there."
Santorum is an ardent opponent of LGBT rights, saying that children raised by same-sex couples will lead to "dysfunction" in society and that the "country will fall" as a result of same-sex marriage.
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