Republican New Jersey Gov. Christie says that Rick Santorum’s warning that Satan is targeting the U.S. should be a relevant topic in the U.S. presidential race.

“This is a spiritual war,” Santorum said during a speech as Ave Maria University in 2008. “And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies, Satan, would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country, the United States of America.”

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Asked about the comments after a campaign event on Tuesday, the Republican presidential candidate insisted that they were “not relevant to what is being discussed in America today.”

Christie, who is supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, told ABC’s George Stephanopolous on Wednesday that “anything you say as a presidential candidate is relevant.”

“It is by definition relevant,” he explained. “You’re asking to be president of the United States. I don’t think [Santorum’s] right about that. I think it is relevant what he says. I think people want to make an evaluation, a complete evaluation of anyone who asks to sit in the Oval Office.”

Watch this video from ABC’s Good Morning America, broadcast Feb. 22, 2012.