Rick Santorum On Newt Gingrich: 'It Would Be Great If He Would Get Out Of The Race'

Rick Santorum told Glenn Beck that it would be "great" if Newt Gingrich exited the race Tuesday.

"Congressman Gingrich has really shown no ability to get votes outside of the State of Georgia and, you know, those primaries are all over," Santorum said. "All the states that border Georgia are now, as of today, will have had their primaries."

"We think we’re going to do exceptionally well in Louisiana and, you know, we are now going to go into states that are much more, you know, we’ve done very well. Illinois is next. The polls there are showing Romney and I running at a dead heat race with Gingrich about 20 points behind the two of us. And whether he does well or not, I don’t think it’s going to matter much," he said.

Santorum said, "it would be great if he would get out of the race because clearly the vast majority of the votes that he is taking are coming from me."

(Video above via GBTV.)

However, the former Pennsylvania senator added that he thought Gingrich would stay in. "If this race continues on the path it’s on right now and Gingrich stays in the race, which seems like he’s inevitable to do, it’s highly unlikely someone is going to get to that, to that magic number."

Last week, Santorum said that he didn't support efforts to pressure Gingrich to get out of the race. "If someone from my campaign is putting out that message they’re -- you’re either misinterpreting it or it’s certainly not coming from me, and I don’t support it," Santorum told reporters in Missouri.

Santorum adviser John Brabender told The Huffington Post that Newt Gingrich should "move aside" if he finished third in all the southern states except Georgia on Super Tuesday, which happened. Santorum's aligned super PAC, the Red White And Blue Fund, has called on him to drop out.

Gingrich said Monday that he will not exit the race.