Alice Stewart, the national press secretary for Republican candidate Rick Santorum, retracted her reference to President Barack Obama’s “radical Islamic policies” during a television interview Monday.
Ms. Stewart appeared on “Mitchell Reports” with MSNBC news anchor Andrea Mitchell Monday, in an effort to clear up Mr. Santorum’s recent “theology” attack on the president.
During a speech in Ohio Saturday, Mr. Santorum accused the president of making policy decisions based upon ““some phony theology,” which, several major news outlets reported as an attack on the president’s faith.
Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to the Obama re-election campaign, reacted to Mr. Santorum’s “phony theology” statement strongly.
“Its just time to get rid of this mindset in our politics that if we disagree, we have to question character and faith,” said Mr. Gibbs in an appearance Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Ms. Stewart reacted to the assesment that the “phony theology” statement was questioning whether the president was Christian or not.
“There is a type of theological secularism when it comes to the global warmists in this country. That’s what he was referring to. He was referring to the president’s policies in terms of the radical Islamic policies the president has,” said Ms. Stewart on Monday.
However, Ms. Mitchell stated later on the air that the Santorum staffer called MSNBC following the interview, and said that she had misspoken when she said “radical Islamic policies,” instead she meant to say “radical environmental policies.”
“She had repeatedly said during that same interview ‘radical environmental policies’ and she said she slipped when she apparently said (it). I did not hear it, or I would have caught her on it and tried to get a correction at the moment. I really, frankly, did not hear her use the word Islamic, but the tape tells the tale,” said Ms. Mitchell, during her show Monday.
Both Ms. Stewart and Mr. Santorum have stuck to their “radical environmental” defense of Mr. Santorum’s “phony theology” statement.
On Monday the former Pennsylvania senator slammed the media for taking his comments out of context.
“I referred to it the other day, and I got criticized by some of our less than erudite members of the national press corps,” said Mr. Santorum during a speech in Ohio Monday.
It will be interesting to see how the attention to the president’s recent contraception rule, Mr. Santorum’s “theology” statement, and his press secretary’s “radical Islamic” speech gaffe will influence the presidential debate moderated by CNN on Wednesday.
Mr. Santorum currently leads rival candidate Mitt Romney in nationwide polls of likely Republican primary voters.
