On the morning after the Paris terrorist attacks, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum accused President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, of aiding the rise of Islamic terrorism.
“ISIS is creation of a political decision by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to abandon Iraq against all of our generals’ recommendations, against all of the policy recommendations,” Santorum told Florida GOP activists at the Sunshine Summit showcase of Republican presidential hopefuls.
Seven Republican candidates spoke Friday, and seven more are slated to appear today. News of the Paris massacre came after most of Friday's candidate lineup had addressed the crowd. Ben Carson, the final Friday speaker, addressed the attacks in remarks to the press after his speech.
Santorum, a former House member who served two Senate terms, said America must elect a “wartime president” and he’s qualified.
“Do we need another young, inexperienced president to come into office at a time when the world is on fire?” Santorum said, referring perhaps to first-term Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.
Santorum later told reporters that, among GOP candidates, only he and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham have adequate national security experience to be president.
Santorum boasted in his speech that he was recently identified as an “enemy” in a magazine put out by ISIS.
“No other presidential candidate has been in the ISIS magazine…They know who I am and I know who they are,” Santorum said.
“I know who they are, they are a group of radical Muslims, jihadists, who are trying to bring back a form of 7th century Islam and apply it in a caliphate in the center of the Islamic world. I have a recommendation. If they want to bring back 7th century Islam, let’s accommodate them by bombing them back to the 7th century.”
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