“They’re not real Catholics.” — Rick Santorum to his aides about those who were offended by his public comment that John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech on the separation of church and state made him want to throw up (p. 281) | REUTERS Santorum ties Obamacare, Mandela

As condolences and reflections followed the passing of Nelson Mandela, Rick Santorum linked the injustices the former South African president fought and Obamacare.

“He was fighting against some great injustice, and I would make the argument that we have a great injustice going on right now in this country with an ever-increasing size of government that is taking over and controlling people’s lives — and Obamacare is front and center in that,” Santorum said Thursday on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor.”


In a segment about the divisions within the Republican Party, host Bill O’Reilly brought up the death of Mandela, saying that while he disagreed with him and called him a “communist,” he still respected the South African leader and wondered why the GOP couldn’t bring the same approach to its disagreements.

( PHOTOS: Nelson Mandela’s life and career)

“He was a great man! But he was a communist! But I would never attack Nelson Mandela,” O’Reilly said. “So why can’t you guys in the Republican Party bring that to the fore?” O’Reilly said.

Mandela, who was South Africa’s first black president and fought apartheid rule, died Thursday at the age of 95.