Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) criticized “establishment folks” in the Republican Party and said that he was “stronger, [and] more knowledgeable” on Friday’s “Laura Ingraham Show”
“What we’ve seen now, for the last several election cycles, is there’s, you call it the establishment, whatever you want to call it, a group of very influential Republicans, and mostly folks in Washington and New York who are folks who are the big donors to the party, people who are the political pros, the experts that everybody’s supposed to defer to, that knows who’s electable, which is the biggest joke in the world, that somehow…there’s some barometer of electability that just a few of the really wise people know who’s electable. Well, we’ve given them, the last two presidential campaigns, who they thought was the most electable, and it turns out, well, I guess they weren’t” he stated.
Santorum then added “what’s most electable is someone who represents the values of the Republican Party, which is the values of the majority of Americans and is willing to go out and articulate those values in a way that connects with ordinary voters. If you look at the Republican Party today…the Republican Party isn’t the same Republican Party that these establishment folks think existed 30, 40 years ago. It’s not wealthy suburbanites, it’s not businesspeople, it’s not Wall Street. That’s not who the Republican Party is anymore. It’s Main Street, it’s decent working Americans that are seeing this country slipping away both internationally and here at home.” And “I think the Republican establishment is just as afraid of folks like Laura Ingraham and Rick Santorum as they are of the other side and that’s why we’re seeing this knee-jerk to try do what they can to try to crown a new king and then brush everybody else aside.”
Later, Santorum was asked whether, as a former senator he could compete with sitting governors who will likely run in 2016, to which he responded “you could have said the same thing about Reagan in 1980, he was a former, and there were plenty of other governors and mayors and other people who were running, and I would say that you have to look at the fact that you have the experience, number one, you have experience in doing this and we did, we built a very strong network across this country and having gone through the fire before, makes you a stronger, more knowledgeable, and wiser candidate.” He also said “I don’t think anybody has the message we have.”
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