Monday on Cuomo Primetime, former Republican Senator Rick Santorum called out CNN host Chris Cuomo on his "intellectual dishonesty." Cuomo tried to compare White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, being asked to leave the Red Hen restaurant last week to the Masterpiece Cakeshop court case in which a Christian baker refused to specifically bake a wedding cake for a gay couple.
After Cuomo tried to say the instances were the same issue, Santorum mounted a defense of Jack Phillips, owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop:
“That's a fundamental difference, Chris. That's a fundamental difference. I said very pointedly, and maybe even on your show, but I said it repeatedly, a baker -- when someone walks in and wants to buy a donut from a baker, they can't say I don't like your kind and throw them out. But that's different than saying, I want for you prepare something using your artistry to support my -- something that is against your conscience.”
Cuomo continued pushing, claiming “that’s exactly the same thing.” In response, Santorum called that argument “intellectually dishonest.” Cuomo then painted an analogy comparing Phillips to Picasso, perhaps in an attempt to say that Phillips is not on the same artistic level as Picasso. Later in the discussion, Cuomo tells Santorum that the argument worked for them in the courts:
“Well, it worked for the Supreme Court. I wish you felt every Supreme Court decision is true. We know that's not true. So, let me just remind you of what President Trump has said and I've never seen you be the way you're being right now about the baker and the cake with any of this stuff.”
Ironic that Cuomo wishes others felt every Supreme Court decision is true. He would no doubt have objections if Roe v. Wade, or Obergefell v. Hodges were overturned.
Read the full transcript of the June 25 panel below:
Chris Cuomo Primetime
6/26/2018
9:33:50-9:35:45 PM EST (1:50)
RICK SANTORUM: She's the proprietor of that restaurant and she has an obligation to be able to treat customers. If that was someone -- if that was a conservative throwing a liberal out or someone who happened to be gay.
CHRIS CUOMO: You mean like the baker? You mean like the baker that you guys all got up and celebrated and said religion at its best?
(CROSSTALK)
SANTORUM: That's a fundamental difference, Chris. That's a fundamental difference. I said very pointedly, and maybe even on your show, but I said it repeatedly, a baker -- when someone walks in and wants to buy a donut from a baker, they can't say I don't like your kind and throw them out. But that's different than saying, I want for you prepare something using your artistry to support my -- something that is against your conscience.
CUOMO: Come on, Rick. That's exactly the same thing.
(CROSSTALK)
SANTORUM: No, it is not the same thing and you are being dishonest intellectually, Chris, if you're saying that. And we need to have a discussion on this because that's absolutely intellectually dishonest, Chris.
CUOMO: You're saying when someone bakes a cake, it is an artistic expression and it's like forcing Picasso to make a painting that he fundamentally disagrees with as a matter of faith. But if they just come in and say --
SANTORUM: If someone --
CUOMO: -- give me a doughnut and you say, I don't want to sell you a doughnut because you're gay and I'm afraid of you people or I hate you, which is the same thing, then that's it's not OK. That's what you're saying?
SANTORUM: That's absolutely right. If you're saying to someone, you have to use your artistic talent to make a cake specifically for this occasion, which you in conscience disagree with, you are cooperating in that event, as opposed to if someone walked in and say, you know what, I like this cake, you've already made, and you want to make it, they should sell it.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: It's an argument that worked with the Supreme Court, so I'll give you that. It worked with the Supreme Court. But I want to remind you of something that you're not --
SANTORUM: Because it's true.
CUOMO: Well, it worked for the Supreme Court. I wish you felt every Supreme Court decision is true. We know that's not true. So, let me just remind you of what President Trump has said and I've never seen you be the way you're being right now about the baker and the cake with any of this stuff. Play it.
