Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Thursday criticized comments in US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) made earlier this month in a speech that critics have said was unnecessarily confrontational toward a Middle Eastern Christian group.
"We have a responsibility to stand by people who are being persecuted," Santorum told Business Insider in a wide-ranging interview in New York. "This shouldn’t be an ideological test — well, you have to agree with us on all of these things, or else we won’t be with you. No, we’re going to be with you if you are a religious minority that’s being persecuted by a radical Muslim majority. Period."
Cruz earned the ire of many conservatives for his speech to a group called "In Defense of Christians." During those remarks, Cruz made a point to say he would not support groups in the Middle East who are not pro-Israel.
He walked off the stage to a chorus of boos after eventually telling the crowd he wouldn’t "stand with" them if they did not "stand with Israel and the Jews." Critics say he was trying to intentionally provoke an audience he knew was not staunchly pro-Israel.
Cruz spoke at the inaugural summit of In Defense of Christians, which the group says was created to promote awareness of the persecution of Christians in the unfriendly confines of the Middle East.
Reuters
Both Santorum and Cruz have said they are mulling potential runs for president in 2016. Santorum, who has considerable clout among the conservative evangelical crowd, is the first potential rival of Cruz to directly address his comments.
Santorum called Cruz’s comments "off," because he said Cruz tied his defense of the group’s work with persecuted Christians to the expectation they agreed with him on every other issue.
"To go in and to say something like, ‘If you don’t stand with Israel, I don’t stand with you’ — I find it hard to suggest that we’re not going to stand with people who are being religiously persecuted and slaughtered because they don’t share the same point of view we do with respect to Israel being the best friend of Christians in the world," Santorum said.
Santorum stressed he is pro-Israel, but would not let that prevent him from supporting a group on a separate issue if they didn’t entirely share his view.
"I don’t accept that. I’m going to stand with them whether they see Israel as their best friend or not. And I think a lot of Israelis will stand with them even if they don’t see Israel as their best friend. … We need to stand with them irrespective of their viewpoints on the state of Israel. And this is being said by someone — you won’t find anybody who’s stronger on the state of Israel than I am."