HANOVER, N.H. — During an impromptu exchange in the lobby of the Hanover Inn Tuesday, on the campus of Dartmouth College, former Pennsylvania senator and current Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum responded to a question that his fellow candidate Mitt Romney memorably ducked on Monday.
The Daily Caller asked Santorum whether embattled U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder should resign amid the growing gun-walking scandal related to Operation Fast and Furious.
“Certainly, he has a lot to answer for,” Santorum responded, “for what clearly seems to be misrepresenting what he knew and when he knew it.”
Santorum spoke off-the-cuff for two minutes about “what goes on within that Justice Department — not just Fast and Furious, but other issues like the prosecution of the New Black Panthers.”
There is “a long history of Eric Holder not being up front with the American Congress about his role in things,” Santorum continued. “The whole pardons issue is another area where the facts don’t seem to comport with what he said — the Marc Rich pardon — so there’s a history here.”
The long-shot presidential candidate refused to outright call for Holder’s resignation, as Congresswoman Michele Bachmann did Monday morning. But he said he was just following his own precedent.
“I’ve never called for the resignation of anybody,” Santorum explained.
But just as quickly, he served the ball squarely into President Obama’s court: “My feeling is that if he lied to Congress, the president would be wise to do the right thing.”
Front-runner Mitt Romney wasn’t as willing to discuss his thoughts about America’s top law enforcement officer: The former Massachusetts governor spent 35 seconds Monday afternoon dodging the same yes-or-no question from TheDC.
David is The Daily Caller’s executive editor and a Dartmouth alumnus. Follow him on Twitter