Republicans talked terrorism, criticized President Obama’s agenda and offered support for Bruce Jenner at the South Carolina GOP convention held Saturday in Columbia.
Jeb Bush, Rick Perry and Ted Cruz were among the Republican presidential contenders and likely contenders. But it was Rick Santorum, also weighing another shot at the White House, who got headlines when he told a group of reporters that people should show acceptance for Bruce Jenner, the Olympic gold medalist who recently announced his intentions to become a woman.
“If he says he’s a woman, then he’s a woman,” Santorum told a roundtable of reporters, according to the website BuzzFeed. “My responsibility as a human being is to love and accept everybody. Not to criticize people for who they are. I can criticize, and I do, for what people do, for their behavior. But as far as for who they are, you have to respect everybody, and these are obviously complex issues for businesses, for society, and I think we have to look at it in a way that is compassionate and respectful of everybody.”
Santorum ran a vigorous presidential campaign in 2012 and belatedly won the Iowa caucus, but he was derailed in primary states, often after answering questions about social issues like gay marriage and abortion.
Rick Perry, the former Texas governor and also a 2012 candidate, told an enthusiastic crowd at the convention that the fight between Western values and Islamic extremism is “the greatest issue of our time,” according to the Associated Press.
Bush, meanwhile, attacked Hillary Clinton’s tenure as former secretary of state under President Obama.
“Hillary Clinton is not going to be the person to lead us to a more stable future,” Bush said, according to the AP. “She has her fingerprints on all these foreign policy disasters.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, who represents South Carolina and will announce soon whether he’ll run, touted his foreign policy experience, noting that he has visited Afghanistan 23 times since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Graham said if elected president he would “listen to commanders on the ground,” rather than the polls, which tend to disfavor American involvement in the Middle East.
The South Caroline primary is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 20.
In 2012, GOP candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won the critical contest, temporarily propelling himself to the front of the Republican pack.
