Former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., claimed Sunday that Barack Obama "exacerbated racism" by aligning himself with anti-police activists whenever people of color were targeted by law enforcement during his presidency.

Santorum made the comment during a CNN segment about President Trump's success in 2016, and whether he capitalized on Republican backlash to the first African-American president.

"You elect the first black president and there was an uproar. ... What Donald Trump did was he tapped into it," Karine Jean-Pierre, a spokeswoman for the progressive group Move On, said during the segment.

But Santorum fired back, suggesting it was Obama who regularly contributed to division while in office.

"What is being ignored here is the way that Barack Obama played into all this. We can't just go from, 'Oh we elected our first black president, all the sudden we get Donald Trump.' There was something in between those two things," Santorum said.

He continued, "Many people saw Barack Obama ... doing more to exacerbate racism. Every time someone of color was involved, he took the side, many times, against the police."

"He did it over and over and over again," Santorum said claiming Obama could have "brought this country together" if he had adjusted his response to certain tragedies while in office.

The tense exchange between Santorum and Jean-Pierre came in response to questions about a new book by former White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes. In it, Rhodes claims Obama once suggested he may have pushed Americans "too far" in racial politics and the culture wars.

