Politics

Santorum: Fox News is ‘shilling’ for Mitt Romney

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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On Tuesday’s “Kilmeade & Friends” radio show on Fox News Radio, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, accused Fox News of being in the tank for his competitor, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Santorum made that claim as part of a larger point, that despite having a lot of things in his favor Romney has been unable to seal the deal.

“The man has had a 10-to-1 money advantage,” Santorum said. “He’s had all the organizational advantage. He’s had Fox News shilling for him every day, no offense Brian but I see it. And yet, he can’t close — he can’t seal the deal because he just doesn’t have the goods to be able to motivate the Republican base and win this election.”

Host Brian Kilmeade rejected Santorum’s charge and said that Santorum has been given the opportunity to appear on FNC as much as Romney.

“On Fox News shilling for Mitt Romney, I totally disagree with that,” Kilmeade said. “You can feel the way you want. I’m just telling you there’s no way I agree with that and you’ve been on as much as anyone.”

On the eve of the Iowa caucuses in January, Santorum made a similar complaint about Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, saying that O’Reilly refused to have him as a guest.  However, Santorum has since appeared on O’Reilly’s program.

Nonetheless, Santorum stuck to his claim about Kilmeade’s network.

“I can tell you, we watch the coverage there and you know, look you guys are allowed to cover what you want to cover,” Santorum said. “But I can tell you, we want to make sure a conservative is nominated. And we’re going to go out there and focus on, not mathematics — we’re not going to focus on the process. We’re going to focus on the issues that are going to help us win and that’s what our campaign has been about.”

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