Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum slammed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney Friday for his “very poor” comments. “We saw something the other day that Mitt Romney said. It sort of sent a chill down my spine as a conservative and a Republican,” Mr. Santorum told supporters at a campaign rally in Hannibal, Missouri.
Mr. Santorum’s attack was a response to the Bain Capital co-founder’s remarks to CNN’s Soledad O’Brien during an interview Wednesday. “I’m in this race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it,” Mr. Romney said.
On a plane to Minnesota Wednesday, Mr. Romney defended his comments. “No, no, no. You’ve got take the whole sentence, alright, it’s mostly the same,” Mr. Romney told reporters, according to The Associated Press. “If there are people that are falling through the cracks, I want to fix that,” Mr. Romney added.
Mr. Santorum, who is polling in fifth in Nevada, slammed Mr. Romney for being out of touch with the American people. “That’s not the Republican Party I want to belong to,” Mr. Santorum posited. “I want to belong to a party that focuses on 100 percent of Americans and creating opportunity for every single one,” the Pennsylvania Republican added.
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul defended Mr. Romney’s comments. “I don’t know in what context he’s saying that. I’m not going to analyze what he was really thinking and what his intent was. I know that he has been misquoted before and in the context of things I’d let him explain that,” Mr. Paul told Jon Ralston of “Face to Face with Jon Ralston” Wednesday.
