Though most folks viewing tonight's first presidential debate went in assuming that we could not possibly be shocked by anything Republican candidate Donald Trump said, his fat-shaming comment slapped onto an unrelated discussion of cybersecurity — when discussing the people behind online security breaches, Trump noted that they could have been committed by hackers from other countries or "somebody sitting on their bed that's 400 pounds" — surprised a vast number of viewers, including, apparently, former Republican senator and current Trump supporter Rick Santorum:
Of course, Santorum's response is a bit ambiguous — he doesn't come out and, say, chastise the candidate he's been campaigning for for inserting a random, unnecessary bit of fatphobic bullying into a debate reply. However, Santorum's response is notable — on a night when party members are playing it safe to defend their candidates, Santorum's odd tweet (made by a man who was just appointed to Trump's Catholic advisory committee, on an account whose Twitter bio urges voters to elect Trump in November) makes on wonder if perhaps Trump's outbursts have the power to shock even some of his supporters.
Santorum, of course, is well-known as a former senator and Republican presidential candidate who has aggressively agitated against marriage equality and gay rights, and, infamously, had his last name appropriated by advice columnist Dan Savage to mean...uyou know what, just google it.
As for Trump, this bizarre fatphobic comment is simply the most recent moment of hateful shaming in an election season that has seen him imply that a journalist was angry because she was having her period and call Clinton "disgusting" for using the bathroom.
