REPUBLICAN PARTY presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has reacted angrily to a New York Times reporter over comments regarding Mitt Romney at a campaign event in Wisconsin.
Asked by New York Times political correspondent Jeff Zeleny to clarify comments in his speech last night about Romney ‘being the worst candidate’ to run against Obama in the election, Santorum asked, “What speech did you listen to?”
“Stop lying,” he told Zeleny. “I said he was the worst Republican to run on the issue of Obamacare, and that’s what I was talking about.”
“Would you guys quit distorting what I am saying,” he continued. ”What are you guys in the business of doing – reporting the truth or are you here to try and spin and make news? Stop it.”
(Video uploaded by BigAngryRick)
Tweeting from the event last night, Zeleny said that the crowd had applauded Santorum’s remarks about Romney, but “tepidly”.
Santorum’s outburst follows recent controversy over his remarks that if his rival Mitt Romney is selected to run in the election for the Republican Party, people might as well vote for Obama. He later clarified that he will support whoever gets the Republican nomination.
The latest Gallup poll put Romney out in front on 40 per cent of support among Republican voters, while Santorum had 26 per cent, Gingrich had 14 per cent, and Ron Paul trailed in fourth place with 8 per cent.
On Saturday, Santorum won the Louisiana primary. According to an Associated Press tally, Romney has 568 delegates supporting him at the party’s national convention, Santorum has 273, Gingrich has 135, and Paul has 50. A candidate needs 1,144 delegates to win the convention this summer before going forward to challenge Obama in the US presidential election.
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