Santorum sidesteps Confederate flag issue

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum refused to say on Sunday whether South Carolina should stop flying the Confederate flag at the state capitol.

“I take the position that the federal government really has no role in determining what the states are going to do,” the former Pennsylvania senator told host Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.”


“You’re a candidate for president,” Raddatz pressed him. “Do you not have a position on this at all?”

“I don’t think the federal government or federal candidates should be making decisions on everything and — and opining on everything,” Santorum replied. “This is a decision that needs to be made here in South Carolina.”

Santorum’s comments came after former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney called for taking down the Confederate flag on Twitter on Saturday, calling it “a symbol of racial hatred.” Another 2016 presidential hopeful, Jeb Bush, also suggested removing the flag, citing the decision to remove it “from the state grounds to a museum where it belonged” when he was Florida governor.

Santorum did respond definitively to a question on whether the killing of nine black parishioners at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday was an act of terrorism.

“I don’t think there’s any question when someone comes into a church for the reasons of racism and hate that they’re trying to terrorize people,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any question that this is an act of terrorism.”