Santorum said the party 'will nominate a conservative, not a libertarian.' Santorum has no use for Rand Paul

Rick Santorum is not on the Rand Paul bandwagon.

Appearing Monday night on CNN’s “Crossfire,” the former GOP senator from Pennsylvania said Paul isn’t his “leader” and that he doesn’t think the Republican Party will nominate him in 2016.


“Well first off, I don’t think that will happen,” Santorum responded when asked by co-host Van Jones if he would support Paul if he received the nomination. “Because the Republican Party is not a libertarian party. It is a conservative party. And it will nominate a conservative, not a libertarian.”

Santorum ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 with a mix of social conservatism and economic populism.

He was also asked whether Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky whom some have called the GOP front-runner for 2016, is his leader.

( Also on POLITICO: Paul fuels fire for 'dragon slayer')

“Well, no, he’s not my leader, I can tell you that for sure. His father and I had some disagreements during the last campaign.”

During the 2012 campaign, Santorum and the elder Paul, a former congressman from Texas, had some public spats. After Ron Paul called him “very liberal,” Santorum told Fox News that, “Ron Paul is disgusting.”

Santorum was also asked about his comments earlier in the day on MSNBC, during which he said Republicans should support an increase in the minimum wage and that the GOP position on the issue “makes no sense.” He said Monday evening that while he supports an increase, he thinks President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats are going too far in their legislation.

“I voted for minimum wage increases when I was in the House of Representatives as I did when I was in the Senate,” he said. “I believe a dollar increase in the minimum wage would make sense. But that’s not what the president is doing. The president is trying to push forth a living wage, trying to dramatically jack up the minimum wage to a point where it would dramatically impact the cost of labor and put people out of work. We need a more modest increase.”