Florida, January 24: During a town hall at an American Legion Hall here Monday afternoon, Rick Santorum was asked a question about President Obama’s religion that’s been a common refrain amongst certain Republicans going all the way back to 2008.
“I never refer to Obama as President Obama because legally he is not,” the woman in the audience began. “He constantly says that our constitution is passé, and he ignores it as you know and does what he darn well pleases. He is an avowed Muslim and my question is, why isn’t something being done to get him out of government? He has no legal right to be calling himself president.”
Rather than disagreeing with the questioner or correcting her assertion by reminding her that President Obama is in fact a Christian, Santorum entirely ignored the more controversial parts of her question.
“Well look, I’m doing my best to get him out of the government right now,” Santorum said. “And you’re right about how he uniformly ignores the constitution. He did this with these appointments over the recess that was not a recess, and if I was in the United States Senate I would be drawing the line.”
In talking about the constitutionality of the president’s use of so-called “czars” to handle certain policies, Santorum even joked that the female questioner would “be the first czar I name,” saying that promise should reassure the crowd that he wouldn’t name any czars at all.
During the 2008 general election, John McCain was famously asked a similar question by a woman who called Obama “an Arab” at a Minnesota town hall, and he rejected the premise of her question.
“No ma’am,” McCain said. “He’s a decent, family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign is all about.”
During an interview with CNN Chief National Correspondent John King following the town hall, Santorum rejected the idea that it’s his responsibility to disagree with supporters who call the president a Muslim.
“I don’t feel it’s my obligation every time someone says something I don’t agree with to contradict them, and the President’s a big boy, he can defend himself and his record and I’m going to go out and talk about the issues that the President and I disagree on and try to defeat him because I think that’s the best thing that we can do for the future of our country,” Santorum told King, in an interview for CNN’s “John King USA.”
When reminded of McCain’s decision to publically reject such claims in 2008, Santorum said he’s done so in the past, but doesn’t feel the need to continue to do so.
“I think I have repeated that many, many times over the course of this campaign,” Santorum said, of his efforts to remind people that Obama is a Christian. “I don’t really feel an obligation to go out and repeat it over and over again as people bring that up. My position is clear, the President’s position is clear, I don’t think the President’s a Muslim, but I don’t think it’s my obligation to go out and repeat that every time someone who feels that way says something.”