Rick Santorum on Thursday likened how Baltimore Police are handling violence to how President Obama responds to terrorists.
“I think if you compare it to President Obama’s national security policy of backing off and giving people room to spread terrorism, which they’ve done, that weakness begets more aggressive activity, and I think that’s clearly what happened here,” Santorum said.
The former senator from Pennsylvania is currently considering launching a second presidential bid and made the comments on the Fox News Radio program hosted by John Gibson.
He said Baltimore authorities needed to strike a better balance when facing unrest, like the riots that exploded Monday night out of demonstrations protesting the death of a black man in police custody.
“The police can be assertive without being abusive,” he said. “It’s important to show that strength, to show that they’re not going to tolerate this type of activity without getting heavy handed and unfortunately they did not do that and we saw the result of it.”
Santorum, as well as other Republicans who are either seeking or considering seeking the White House, has hit Obama hard over his foreign policy moves. For example, he criticized Obama’s negotiations with Iran over its nuclear weapons program, and called the administration’s tactic against ISIS “a public relations stunt.”
The Republican also said it is time to reassess tough drug laws, including those he supported in the 1990s.
“Felony records (are) making it very difficult for folks to get jobs coming back out of prisons. It is a serious problem,” he said, that “disproportionately … affects minority communities.”
“I’ve been very very open to the idea that we need to look at ways in which we can deal with this incarceration rate revolving around drug crimes,” Santorum said.
Asked in the interview about when he would make a decision about a presidential run, Santorum said he was still testing the water but that it was “looking clear.” A decision, he said, would come within a month or two.