Santorum Dings ‘Black Lives Matter’ Leader He Met In Charleston (VIDEO)

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Presidential candidate and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) had a chuckle on Tuesday about meeting the leader of the Black Lives Matter movement on Sunday at the site of last week’s massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

During an interview on Fox News, Santorum confirmed that he met activist Deray McKesson during the first Sunday services at Emanuel AME Church since the massacre.

“It just has come up that you were seated to Deray McKesson, who is one of the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement,” Fox anchor Martha MacCullum said. “What did you two talk about?”

According to Santorum, not much.

“Frankly I didn’t know who — I was sitting there and he came and sat next to me and introduced himself — I frankly didn’t know who he was,” Santorum said. “I just exchanged pleasantries with him.”

“Again, I was just so moved by the service and I just made a couple of comments about that,” Santorum continued.

“He was spending a lot of his time on his phone,” Santorum said with a chuckle. “Doing a lot of communicating on his phone.”

MacCallum began to speak over Santorum, saying the event “did bring a lot of people together,” before moving on to ask the candidate about his presidential campaign.

McKesson began involving himself in civil rights activism during the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri last year after the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, and has since been on the ground in Baltimore and now South Carolina.

He is often attacked by conservatives for his outspoken style, so much so that he earned his own hashtag when he appeared in South Carolina last week, #GoHomeDeray.

The remark from Santorum came the same day National Review published an article attacking McKesson as a “next-generation race-baiter” and a “professional protestor” who stokes “racial outrage.”

MSNBC’s Trymaine Lee took a photo of Santorum and McKesson during the service:

Watch the clip:

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