Rick Santorum Defends Satan Comments

Rick Santorum is making no effort to distance himself from his 2008 remarks about Satan attacking America.

Last week Right Wing Watch dug up a speech Santorum made while McCain and Obama were campaigning. Listen below, and here are some sound bites:

"Satan has his sights on the United States of America!"

"Satan is attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity, and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition."

"This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country - the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age? There is no one else to go after other than the United States and that has been the case now for almost 200 years, once America’s preeminence was sown by our great Founding Fathers.”

Santorum defended his comments a rally in Phoenix Tuesday evening, saying that it's "absurd" they resurfaced on the Drudge Report earlier that day.

“It's a joke, it's absurd," he said in a video posted by CNN (watch above). "I‘m a person of faith. I believe in good and evil. I think if somehow or another because you’re a person of faith you believe in good and evil is a disqualifier for president, we’re going to have a very small pool of candidates who can run for president."

When pressed about whether he believes the country is under attack by Satan, he said:

"You guys are asking questions that are not relevant to what's being discussed in America today. What we're talking about in America is trying to get America working, that's what my speeches are about, that's what we're going to talk about in this campaign. If they want to to dig up old speeches when I'm talking to a religious group, they can go right ahead and do so but I'm going to stay on message, I'm going to talk about what Americans want to talk about, which is creating jobs, getting our country safer and secure and yeah, taking on the forces around this world who want to do harm to America. You bet I will take 'em on."

During the same appearance, Santorum mocked Obama as a "rock star" that people "believed could solve their problems" back in 2008.

The former Pennsylvania senator made waves last week when he said Obama subscribes to "some phony theology, not a theology based on the Bible." Later he insisted he was attacking the president's worldview, not his faith, and believes he is Christian.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is a Romney surrogate, criticized Santorum's defense of the Satan comments on "Good Morning America" Wednesday.

"Listen, I think anything you say as a presidential candidate is relevant," Christie said. "It is by definition relevant. You’re asking to be president of the United States. I don’t think [Santorum's] right about that. I think it is relevant what he says. I think people want to make an evaluation, a complete evaluation of anyone who asks to sit in the Oval Office."

Sarah Palin defended Santorum's comments on FOX News, blaming the "lame-stream media" for getting "all wee-weed up."

"They will attack any conservatives who boldly proclaims their faith and talks about there is good in the world and there's evil in the world and that's what Rick Santorum was talking about," she said. "And this was a speech that he gave back in 2008, where he named evil as Satan. And for these lame-stream media characters to get all wee-weed up about that, first you have to ask yourself, 'Have they ever attended a Sunday school class even? Have they never heard of this terminology before?' And that's why they got so, you know, just whacked out about the speech."

Related on HuffPost:

More on Rick Santorum's campaign:

 

 

Comments

[Suzan McQueen]

06:21 AM on 03/11/2012

I believe he is the evil of which he speaks.

[EmmaNYC]

10:46 AM on 02/29/2012

I, too, believe in good and evil, and Santorum personifies evil. In fact, all too many current Republican politicians personify evil in every outrageous statement they make, every mean law they pass and every cry from the needy they ignore.

[Tmiley]

02:38 PM on 02/26/2012

Santorum believes every word he said in 2008 and would like to say them again in 2012. During the my time in the Air Force, I joined the Penticostals and the people there were telling me, "Science is of the Devil". This is before I went to college and learned that this statement was BS. I believe in Satan as much as God. If you study the universe and learn a little about physics, one will notice that the evolution of our universe does not need a God to create it. There is no supernatural, intelligent force controlling anything. If you study Quantum Physics, one will learn that there are two forces at work in nature. One - natural physical laws and Two - complete randomness, These two forces are behind the evolution of the universe, galaxies, solar systems, planets, and life. We did indeed come from complete chance. Most scientists believe in muti-universes and each one has its own physical laws. Ours has ones that allow for the man to evolve to ask the questions, "Where did we come from and what is our purpose??"

[Pherdnut]

07:41 PM on 02/25/2012

"You guys are asking questions that are not relevant to what's being discussed in America today."

So he's saying a Satan-attack was somehow more relevant 4 years ago than it is today? What happened? Did we win? If so I'd like to know how so we can be prepared for Satan attacks in the future.

[Blastrocat]

08:25 AM on 02/25/2012

Satan is, of course, a mythological figure. Unfortunately, Santorum is not.

[SouthernQ2]

05:52 AM on 02/25/2012

Teresa Heinz Kerry accurately characterized Santorum as "Forrest Gump with an attitude". Santorum constantly makes outrageous, factually inaccurate statements based on his bizarre Catholic worldview, then doubles down on them when challenged (while dissembling and sometimes lying about what he said).

[JPETERB]

01:33 AM on 02/25/2012

"Mr. Santorum has no concept of man’s long history of fallenness, the extent of God’s holiness, the depravity of men and man's governments, or the pervasiveness of man's quick and repeated resort to greed and violence as necessary sin. Is it really necessary for honest and well read Christians to thump a vain and absurd Santorum on the head with the Bible because he thinks all of America is "a good, decent, powerful, influential country - the United States of America" by directly quoting Jesus of Nazareth who said, in response to a person who addressed Hm directly as, "Good Teacher."
“Why do you call me good? No one is good but the Father.”"

Paraphrased from:
Don't read into it. « Project Odessa Life
projectodessalife.com/2011/10/16/dont-read-into-it/

[Denice Brown]

10:16 PM on 02/24/2012

Better yet, let's declare Santorum POPE of America. We are all catholics now.

[Denice Brown]

10:15 PM on 02/24/2012

Santorum defends Satan? Hahahahahahahahaaaa!!!!!!!!

[Joe Pithier]

09:24 PM on 02/24/2012

In a word: Electable.

[snakedoctorPhD]

06:15 PM on 02/24/2012

WHAT AN A$S HO*E. I SURE HOPE THAT HE GETS THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION...

[bobbyar410]

05:10 PM on 02/24/2012

GOD will destroy satan santorum.

Your name sounds satanic

[BevoMD]

05:07 PM on 02/24/2012

This guy is entitled to his faith but making public statements that would be interpreted as saying that Barak Obama is a tool of satan is absurd! (read the quote about Obama's theology in context with his satan ideas. What happens if he is president and decides somd European leader such as Putin is the Anti-Christ?

[Joemama54]

05:03 PM on 02/24/2012

Rick Santorum would is better suited to star in the next remake of "The Excorcist".
Maybe he could get Franklin Graham to play the priest.
Get the green pea soup ready.

[treabeton]

04:59 PM on 02/24/2012

"Father of Lies." Gee, that about covers all the GOP candidates.