Santorum: Obama’s ‘Minions’ Privately Told Me They Thought I Could Beat Him (VIDEO)

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum suggested Tuesday that Barack Obama’s campaign team told him they were privately afraid the former senator could have ridden a wave of working-class votes to beat the President in the 2012 election.

Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to promote his new book “Blue Collar Conservatives,” Santorum was asked whether he thought he’d win if his family was game to launch another presidential bid. He lost the Republican nomination last time around to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R).

“Look, I thought I could have won last time,” he said. “I’m convinced. You know I asked one of the Obama minions who were running the campaign ‘Hey, why didn’t you guys help me? I was up there battling Romney and all these folks at MSNBC were saying wouldn’t this be great if Santorum were the nominee, why didn’t you help me? Why didn’t you go out and bang me a little a bit, hit me you know, as being too conservative?'”

“And the consensus was, ‘We didn’t want you, because of this,'” Santorum added, holding up his book.

The former presidential hopeful then recounted how he met with Romney’s campaign manager and pollster after dropping out of the race. Romney’s team showed him a poll from Pennsylvania that found Santorum down by four points among voters who went to the polls during the workday, but up by 21 points after 5 p.m.

“When working people go to the polls,” host Joe Scarborough pointed out.

“This is it. And that’s what the other side is scared to death of,” Santorum said.

Watch below:

Image via MSNBC

This post has been updated.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Uh, I think the ‘minion’ was actually thinking “yes, yes YES, please please please run Rick… we would actually be able to win without campaigning at all”.

  2. He should be a regular on that show, he’s perfect for it. One lie after another, punctuated by cluelessness.

  3. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

    That’s some quality trolling. Well done, unnamed “minion,” well done!

  4. “And the consensus was, ‘We didn’t want you, because of this,’” Santorum added, holding up his book."

    LLLMAO Nice work, Obama minions. That’s some seriously heavy-duty trolling. Trying not to break character had to be like Bill Hader playing Stephon

  5. Avatar for jeff jeff says:

    Maybe Dan Savage can add a second definition to Santorum; a state of utter delusion.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

131 more replies

Participants

Avatar for bdtex Avatar for alliebean Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for brooklynmichael Avatar for ncsteve Avatar for toodumbtoknow Avatar for bradbennett Avatar for fourlegsgood Avatar for deequilter Avatar for mcbain Avatar for ched Avatar for SmittyPA Avatar for chelsea530 Avatar for sgjsdad Avatar for halloweenjack Avatar for gr Avatar for AJ Avatar for magical_panda Avatar for pmb28 Avatar for dnl Avatar for benthere Avatar for mainemomma Avatar for jinnj Avatar for meta

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: