Former senator and current presidential candidate Rick Santorum took questions from Pennsylvania college students at an event in Philadelphia on Monday. Students from Villanova, the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, and Temple gathered in Center City to meet the candidate.
During the forum, Santorum offered some insight into his own policy positions, as well as some criticism of his Republican competitors.
But first, he took the opportunity to scold the students.
“Your generation is tolerant to the point of absurdity in my opinion,” Santorum told students when asked whether there really is a war on Christianity. “You’re tolerant to the point that you tolerate evil. That’s the general Millennial perspective, which is that everyone should do what they want to do, they shouldn’t judge anyone else, they should accept everyone else, but you won’t allow people to be discriminated against unless you’re a class, like Christians, that’s allowed to be discriminated against. Why? Well, because they’re the majority.”
Students questioned the presidential hopeful about his plan to increase the minimum wage to $8.75. In line with his goal of appealing to “blue-collar midwestern workers,” Santorum said it is necessary to have a minimum wage floor.
“I believe that we should have a minimum wage that is 5-7 percent of wages, and that should be the floor,” he said. “Less than 1 percent of workers make the minimum wage. If you’re not for a minimum wage increase, you’re not for a minimum wage. We’re not in danger of having any real economic consequences if we raise the wage.”
Despite saying he was not going to “go on personal attacks,” Santorum slammed a few of his opponents ahead of Wednesday’s GOP debate.
He called Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker a “flip-flopper” and “non-authentic.”
“He’s raised a lot of money and a lot of staff, and he doesn’t have much to show for it,” Santorum said.
He also criticized Carly Fiorina’s business background, (“she set up a subsidiary Hewlett-Packard in Dubai when she was there to get around the Iranian sanctions.”)
He said Ben Carson, who is currently pulling ahead in the polls, “needs a lot of debate prep because I still don’t know his position on immigration.”
Previously, Santorum admitted that he, in fact, “does not do much for debate prep.”
Santorum’s poll numbers continue to sit near the bottom of the GOP pack, according to Real Clear Politics, and he did not qualify for primetime at the second presidential debate.
This article is from Red Alert Politics’ Campus Correspondent Program. Would you like to contribute a story from your school? Apply here to be a Campus Correspondent for RAP!
