CNN's @ChrisCuomo: "Do you think President Obama lied more than Donald Trump?"
Rick Santorum: "I think the substance of the President's — the previous President's lies were much more important than the substance of what the crowd size was at the inaugural" pic.twitter.com/IQqqSPflyN— New Day (@NewDay) May 2, 2018
Rick Santorum on Wednesday brushed off questions about false and misleading claims by President Trump, arguing that his predecessor, Barack Obama, told more substantial lies.
Asked on CNN’s “New Day” whether he believed Obama lied more often than Trump, Santorum, a former GOP senator from Pennsylvania, demurred, saying that the former president’s untruths carried more weight than those of the current commander in chief.
“I think the substance of the previous president’s lies were much more important than the substance of what the crowd size was at the inaugural,” Santorum said, referring to the White House’s claim last year that Trump’s inauguration crowd was the largest in history.
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Unlike with Trump, Santorum argued, the media failed to hold Obama accountable for his false and misleading statements.
“I don’t think we’re putting it in the context that it needs to be put in, which is the media has focused a lot more on this president than it has President Obama,” he said.
Santorum’s comments came a day after The Washington Post’s Fact Checker unveiled a tally of Trump’s false and misleading statements since taking office, pegging the number at 3,001.
Asked by “New Day” host Chris Cuomo whether he believes Trump lies, Santorum initially replied that he didn’t know, before acknowledging that “he certainly says things that don’t comport with the facts.”
“I don’t like calling people liars, but the reality is this president has a problem,” Santorum said.