Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania who regularly appears as a conservative pundit on CNN, was asked about an article in the Washington Post, which appeared in May 2018, that said Donald Trump had told three thousand lies a year or so during his presidency.
Santorum responded that President Barack Obama told more damaging lies than Donald Trump. When pressed on that statement, Santorum said that the news media were harder on Trump for his lying because … Santorum didn’t say why, but maybe the reason was that Trump told so many more and far more damaging lies.
“Does he lie?” CNN news anchor Chris Cuomo asked Santorum about Trump.
“I don’t know,” Santorum answered. “He certainly says things that don’t comport with the facts . . . . I don’t like calling people liars, but the reality is this president has a problem.”
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-lies-counted-rick-santorum-evidence-deflection-obama-908503
Santorum later defended Trump’s lying by saying that people shouldn’t criticize him for not telling the truth because he never tells the truth.
“Is that really the best defense you can come up with?” CNN legal affairs expert Jeffrey Toobin responded. “Well, he lies about everything, your honor!”
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2255262598061127
Was Santorum lying or is he just ignorant?
Yes.
In 2018, Santorum addressed the frequency of school shootings by suggesting that gun laws were ineffective and that children would be better prepared in case of a mass shooting if they took CPR classes.
Santorum’s quote prompted a statement from Everytown for Gun Safety program manager Erica Lafferty, whose mother was murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.
The statement read: “My mother was killed while protecting her students at Sandy Hook School. For anyone to suggest that the solution to gun violence is for kids to learn CPR is outrageous, and indicative of the NRA’s desire to do or say anything except strengthen America’s weak gun laws.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/25/politics/rick-santorum-guns-cnntv/index.html
Heather Sher, a Florida-based radiologist who examined the gunshot wounds of victims in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas school, called Santorum’s comments “gobsmackingly uninformed.”
Jo Buyske, executive director of the American Board of Surgery, characterized Santorum’s comments as a “dangerous and wrong message,” saying on Twitter, “Mr. Santorum, CPR doesn’t work if all the blood is on the ground.”
You can take the Santorum out of the sanitarium, but you can’t take the sanitarium out of the Santorum.
