The media narrative of whites lashing out against other groups as Donald Trump rose to become president-elect is the leading irritant stirring unrest across the U.S., former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum suggested Tuesday evening during a televised forum.

Addressing the spike in hate crimes since Trump was elected on Nov. 8, Santorum called out the media, including the two CNN commentators he was sitting with, for focusing on what he called "whitelash."

"I think frankly, when people like Ana Navarro and Van Jones get up and talk about whitelash and how Donald Trump hates Muslims, and all of the negative things the press is spewing out about what Trump is going to do — that's got people more worked up than anything else," Santorum said.

Navarro retorted, "So you think when Van and I highlight some of this stuff it's 'hate-spewing?'"

"It is," Santorum replied.

Navarro continued, asking, then, whether it was hate speech when Trump, during his campaign, referred to undocumented Mexican immigrants as "rapists" and criminals."

"It's not related to what Trump wants to do," Santorum said.

The exchange took part during "The Messy Truth," CNN's special program devoted to exploring voters' feelings about President-elect Trump one month after he won the election.

Jones, who was hosting the event, also confronted Santorum on race isues.

"Maybe in your world these issues came up because [President] Obama was bringing them in," Jones said to Santorum. "But in our world, we worry about these issues everyday. I'm raising two boys, we struggle with these issues, we see the ways that our kids are sometimes treated versus others."

"I don't think the president brought these issues forward. I think that the issues have been with us for a long time," he added.

The event also included progressive filmmaker Michael Moore.