Rick Santorum on Sunday argued that he
has never attempted to impose his conservatives views on others.
During a segment on NBC's Meet The
Press, host David Gregory asked Santorum if as president he would
act on his beliefs on issues such as abortion and gay marriage.
Santorum blamed the media for creating
the false notion that he is focused on social issues.
“Senator, you know, wait a minute,”
Gregory interrupted. “You talk about this stuff every week. And
by the way, it's not just in this campaign. Sir in this campaign,
you talk about it, and I've gone back years when you've been in
public life and you have made this a centerpiece of your public life.
So the notion that these are not deeply held views worthy of
question and scrutiny – it's not just about the press.”
“Yeah, they are deeply held views,
but they're not what I dominantly talk about, David. You're taking
things that over a course of a 20-year career, and pulling out quotes
from different speeches on issues that are fairly tangential, not
what people care about mostly in America, and saying, 'Oh, he wants
to impose those values.' Look at my record. I never wanted to
impose any of the things that you just talked about.”
“There is no evidence at all that I
want to impose those values on anybody else,” he added.
Last month, Santorum told CNN host
Piers Morgan that he would as president outlaw gay marriage.
“I would change the law to make a
uniform definition of marriage in this country,” he
said.
And while in the Senate, Santorum
voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and twice in
favor of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution which would define
marriage as a heterosexual union.