Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Sunday that President Obama “exacerbated racism” by taking positions against the police when people of color were involved in high profile incidents during his term.
Santorum’s statement came after Karine Jean-Pierre, a spokesperson for MoveOn, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Republicans weren’t pleased with the election of President Obama and that it led to President Trump winning the 2016 election.
“You elect the first black president and there was an uproar,” Jean-Pierre said. “You saw the obstruction by Republicans time and time again.”
“What Donald Trump did was he tapped into it. Let’s not forget, he started his political career talking about birtherism,” Jean-Pierre added, reminding the viewers of the conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the United States.
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Santorum responded by saying that it was President Obama who actually used his presidency to contribute to the racial divide in America.
“What is being ignored here is the way that Barack Obama played into all this. We can’t just go from, ‘Oh we elected our first black president, all the sudden we get Donald Trump.’ There was something in between those two things,” Santorum said.
“Many people saw Barack Obama being just that, doing more to exacerbate racism,” said Santorum.
Santorum continued, “every time someone of color was involved, he took the side, many times, against the police.”
“He did it over and over and over again,” Santorum added. “President Obama was, to many people out there, someone who could have come together, brought this country together.”
The heated exchange between Santorum and Jean-Pierre came after questions about former White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes’ new book, “The World as It Is.”