Robert Gibbs, former Obama White House press secretary and currently an outside adviser, pushed back forcefully on Rick Santorum’s remarks on President Obama’s faith and ideology.
His exchange with ABC’s Jake Tapper on Sunday:
TAPPER: You think he was questioning his faith?
GIBBS: I can’t help but think that those remarks are well over the line. It’s wrong. It’s destructive. It makes it virtually impossible to solve the problems that we all face together as Americans. People are not sitting at home this morning, Jake, thinking we more of this in our politics or our public discourse. It’s time to get rid of this. It’s time to have a debate on our political positions, but not question each other’s character and faith.
TAPPER: Rick Santorum denies that he was dog-whistling about the president’s faith, suggesting that the president is anything other than a Christian. You don’t necessarily believe that.
GIBBS: Jake, I think that if you make comments like that, you make comments that are well over the line. I think this GOP primary is — in many cases, Jake, has been a race to the bottom. We have seen nastiness, divisiveness, ugliness, distortions of opponents’ records, of the president’s records.
