Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has not yet received an apology from the Republican National Committee for its rules keeping him off of Fox News’ prime-time debate stage, rules he finds detrimental to the GOP’s White House aspirations.
“I haven’t heard anything yet and I don’t anticipate on hearing anything,” the Republican presidential hopeful said on CNN Thursday morning. “The fact that we’re arbitrarily limiting the debates is a disservice to the American people. If I were the GOP I would be boasting about our riches.”
Santorum is part of group of seven candidates who did not make the top 10 for Fox News’ main debate stage. The roster of top 10 candidates that will debate at 9 p.m. EST Thursday night was picked based on an average of the five most recent national polls. Santorum will instead join former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York Gov. George Pataki and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore at 5 p.m. EST Thursday night for a separate debate.
Despite missing the prime-time debate stage, Santorum said Thursday he is not letting anything undermine his campaign trail message.
“It is not a national race,” Santorum, who was one of the biggest threats to eventual candidate Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign, said. “It is a state-by-state race. I am going to talk to the people of Iowa, New Hampshire and North Carolina.”
According to a RealClearPolitics average of polls, Santorum is garnering 1.4 percent of support, putting him in twelfth place.
“I like coming from behind and being the underdog,” Santorum said, adding about his political career, “We’ve been the guy on the outside looking in. We’re doing the same thing here.”
