One of the most heartwarming things that can come in the wake of a tragic death is the outpouring of love and support for the deceased. One of the worst things, it turns out, is when a public figure cashes in on a tragic death to avoid slipping into obscurity. Enter former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum.

Thursday night, the world learned of former South African President and apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela’s passing at the age of 95. While most took the opportunity to mourn the loss, Santorum chose to use his appearance on on “The O’Reilly Factor” to compare himself to the fallen leader.

Though O’Reilly may not agree with leaders like Mandela or Desmond Tutu, he said that he does respect them. He then asked Santorum why Congressional members of the GOP can’t work together with a similar kind of respect.

“Well Nelson Mandela stood up against a great injustice, and was willing to pay a huge price for that, and that’s the reason he mourned today, because of that struggle that he performed,” Santorum responded. “But you’re right, what he was advocating for was not necessarily the right answer, but he was fighting against some great injustice. And I would make the argument that, you know, 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.”

Besides not actually answering the question, Santorum’s reply suggests that apartheid, a time when black South Africans were given inferior education, medical care and other public services, is similar in magnitude to the Affordable Care Act.

Mandela served 27 years in prison for opposing apartheid policies. After apartheid ended, he amended the South African constitution to include a fundamental right to health care, and introduced a government-funded program to cover the cost of medical care for people who could not afford the private system. Knowing this (or perhaps not), Santorum suggested that Mandela would have opposed Obamacare.

It’s worth noting that O’Reilly began the segment by referring to Mandela a communist.

“He was a great man,” he said, “but he was a communist, but I would never attack Nelson Mandela.”