The former Pennsylvania senator, who finished second to Mitt Romney in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, told Breitbart News he is happily attending the 2016 Republican National Convention to support the presumptive nominee Donald J. Trump.
Rick Santorum said he endorsed Trump because he trusts him to pick true conservatives to the Supreme Court.
“Well, I asked him to produce a list of folks that he chose from to pick a Supreme Court justice. When he produced that list and said he would pick from it that to me was enough to get my endorsement,” he said.
“I have confidence that the most important issue that I care about–the Constitution of this country–will be preserved for our children and the next generations… Under Hillary Clinton, it won’t be,” Santorum added.
Santorum, who suspended his 2016 campaign for president after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses, said Clinton is a serious enemy of the Constitution and will appoint justices to the Supreme Court who share her left-wing interpretation of the Constitution.
“She’ll appoint someone that will ignore the writings of the Framers of the Constitution, ignore the precedents of the court, and do whatever they want to do,” he said. “Donald Trump has said he won’t do that.”
In the 2012 campaign, Santorum won 10 primaries and caucuses and finished in a virtual tie with Romney and former Texas congressman Dr. Ron Paul in Iowa. The senator’s supporters were younger and more working class than those supporting Romney, but despite his success and ability to attract Democrats, his campaign was not prepared for the torrent of negative advertising Romney unleashed on him, nor was his team savvy working the backroom selection of delegates–meaning that in states where he won the primary, Romney still walked away with the majority of delegates.
Santorum said he was underutilized in the 2012 general election campaign by a bitter Romney camp that kept him off the campaign trail even in regions, such as western Pennsylvania, Upper Peninsula Michigan, and the non-urban areas of Ohio, where he was very popular.
This was despite the senator’s agreeing to withdraw from the race before the Pennsylvania primary–a move that he said saved the Romney campaign $4 million. “There was obviously some hard feelings from that campaign after the tough primaries and that happens. It is just one of those things–they felt there were other places they could go to.”
The senator said he has not been asked to speak at the convention, nor has he been asked to campaign as a Trump surrogate. “If they think I can help out, I’ve told Donald and I’ve told the campaign I am here to do whatever I can to be helpful.”
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