Martin Bashir Bashes Rick Santorum Over Charity Giving, Fails to Consider Expensive Cost of Bella's Medical Bills

April 13th, 2012 5:13 PM

Bashing conservatives is nothing new for MSNBC or for Martin Bashir. However, on the April 13 edition of Martin Bashir, liberal British journalist Martin Bashir went on a rant about how Rick Santorum is a hypocrite for giving a small portion of his earnings to charity. Except there is one key fact that Bashir is missing. Rick Santorum is spending a lot of money on medical care for his sick daughter Bella.  [Video below the jump]

It’d be one thing if Martin Bashir did not know that Rick Santorum had a sick daughter. Yet, Santorum has taken time off from the campaign trail to care for her, even citing her as one of the reasons for suspending his campaign. In fact, he even mentioned her care as a reason for not paying as much to charities as he would have liked. In an article published in the Christian Post, dated March 4, 2012, Santorum explained,

I was in a situation where we have seven children and one disabled child who we take care of. She's very, very expensive. We love her and we cherish the opportunity to take care of her, but it's an additional expense. We need round-the-clock care for her and our insurance company doesn't cover it so I have to cover it.

Bashir’s rant against Santorum was followed by praise of President Obama for giving 22 percent of his income to charity.

Perhaps Bashir thinks the NARAL-endorsed president is 11 times as godly as the pro-life former Pennsylvania senator.


The full transcript is below.

MSNBC
Martin Bashir

April 13, 2012
3:59 p.m. EDT

MARTIN BASHIR: This week marked the end of Rick Santorum's attempt to win the Republican nomination. He spent months talking about his personal faith and haranguing the country for failing to do the same. But in his last tax returns, we discovered that he gave less than two percent to charity. Yes, less than two percent. It's hardly surprising that people will become cynical when politicians talk religion, especially when their actions don't appear to live up to their words. And particularly when one self-proclaimed Christian tends to give a minimum of ten percent of their income. I’ve no doubt that this election campaign will involve more ludicrous attacks on the President and his personal faith. But if you're not prepared to listen to his words, then why not take a look at his actions? The president, under no obligation whatsoever, gave twenty two percent of his income to charity. That is faith in action. Thank you very much for watching