During a town hall event in Florida yesterday, Rick Santorum refused to correct a woman who told him that President Obama is “an avowed Muslim” and is not a “legal” president. Instead, in an exemplary show of cowardice, Santorum pandered to the woman, saying he agreed with her on some of the things she was saying.
This morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, New York Magazine’s John Heilemann asked Santorum why he didn’t show leadership in that instance. Santorum said what he failed to say yesterday: “I’ve said repeatedly that I don’t believe President Obama’s a Muslim, and he’s qualified.”
But then Santorum excused his failure in judgment by spinning it as an example of his own chivalry:
This was an elderly lady. She was there leaning on a cane. She was quite wobbly. And I’m not going to sit there and slam an older lady because she has some way out – some bizarre beliefs. It’s your responsibility to defend the President, not mine. […] I’m not here to defend the President against scurrilous attacks. It’s not my job.
Heilemann noted that when John McCain was confronted in 2008 by a town hall participant who similarly accused Obama of being something he is not, McCain told the woman she was wrong. “Let me be clear, I am not John McCain,” Santorum responded. Watch it:
By openly acknowledging that he will not reject “scurrilous attacks” against Obama, Santorum is essentially sanctioning them.
Ironically, Santorum recently issued this attack against Mitt Romney: “We don’t need someone who supports lies and promotes lies and stands behind those lies in order to get elected president.” Indeed.
Previous in TP Politics
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.