Santorum's congratulatory statement anything but congratulatory
(CNN) - Just a few hours after Mitt Romney's landslide victory over Rick Santorum in Puerto Rico's Republican presidential primary, the Santorum campaign put out an e-mail release titled "Santorum campaign congratulates Romney on Puerto Rico victory."
But the statement Sunday night from the campaign of the former senator from Pennsylvania was anything but congratulatory.
- Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker
- Follow Paul Steinhauser on Twitter: @PsteinhauserCNN
In the release, Santorum communications director Hogan Gidley said, "Rick Santorum has a consistent core – and he showed that when he went to Puerto Rico and took a locally unpopular but principled stance about English being the official language of America. Mitt Romney on the other hand, switched another one of his positions to gain favor in Puerto Rico, by saying that Puerto Ricans shouldn't have to learn English if they want to become a state. We all know Mitt Romney will do and say anything to get votes, and this is just another example of that."
Santorum did take a controversial stand on English as a condition for Puerto Rico's possible statehood last week in a newspaper interview on the island. He later said to an extent that he was misquoted or taken out of context.
He told CNN National Political Correspondent Jim Acosta that both English and Spanish should be required if Puerto Rico were to become the 51st state.
"Obviously Spanish will be spoken here on the island. But this needs to be a bilingual country, not just a Spanish speaking country," Santorum told Acosta.
The Romney campaign reacted to the Santorum campaign statement Monday morning.
"Sen. Santorum is lashing out at Mitt Romney because voters know we won't get the economy going again by replacing one president with no job creation experience with another with no job creation experience," Romney press secretary Andrea Saul told CNN. "Sen. Santorum doesn't understand how the economy works and also doesn't understand that English has been an official language of Puerto Rico for over 100 years."
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who's making his second bid for the GOP nomination, won more than 80% of the vote in Sunday's primary, capturing all 20 delegates at stake. Romney has a more than a two-to-one advantage over Santorum in the race for delegates, but he's still less than halfway toward the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
From CNN Politics
- Republican leaders and Trump loyalists on Capitol Hill rally behind the former president after indictment
- 10 Cards Charging 0% Interest Until 2024
- Untitled
- Biden to announce that federal government will fully cover cost of cleanup following deadly storms
- Untitled
- Social Security will not be able to pay full benefits in 2034 if Congress doesn't act
How long has it been since you heard a teapublican say anything positive about anything? Mine was in 2000, and then it was a made up lie touting the greatness of some disaster created by Bush. Will they ever get their meds regulated and see things in a better perspective? Listen to Faux Noise a while and you'll have to start Prozac.
Why do I so often find myself to be better informed and smarter than our presidential and vice presidential candidates? It's really disturbing that people like Santorum are the ones who rise to the top yet don't even know our basic laws.
I meant to say "right way"
They are both an embarassment to our country
I have yet to hear about the ACTUAL ISSUES that are facing this nation... you know, silly things like the economy, jobs. Nothing near as important as speaking english, who should be banned from being using birth control... {sarcasm in case you're not sure}.
A classic Romney flip flop!
Santorum is so "Christian" that he likes to say mean things to people all of the time. I guess he forgot to wear his "What Would Jesus Do" bracelet.
These two are the kind of politicians that turn people completely off. They have no middle class base and marvel over winning on tiny islands in the middle of nowhere. As for Santorum, he is the most miserable excuse for a person there is.
MS G.....I live in Long Beach Ca. and yes the gas prices are high but since you are complaining about EVERYTHING... I'm inclined to ask......would we have been better off with Bush for another term... Would you have liked McCain with Sarah Palin as VP???Bush came in with a major surplus and left us with a major deficit and two wars. It's easy to talk but we could be worse off. People like you are part of the problem.....what have you done to help besides complain??????..Imagiine what could have been done if the Republicans had been a part of the action!!!!!Mitt Romney would be a joke.....his nickname is rightfully now "Flipper". He hasn't kept the same opinion of anything for longer than 24 hrs. This is presidential??????? I think not!!!!!!
Funny how some people don't realize how long it takes for policies to take effect. When you have a republican congress and republican senators saying on day one that their main job is to make the president a one term president and not work with him. How can you blame him for whats going on without blaming the republicans too.
The accusation that President Obama is stealing anyone's freedom is hypocrisy at its best. What about the freedoms Santorum wants to steal from American Women? Our right to make decisions about our own destiny? This man is a Religious fanatic at its best, and I find that terrifying!