Aspiring commander-in-chief Rick Santorum is facing questions about how many times his passport has been stamped outside the United States after admitting he’s never traveled to the location of the country’s longest war.
It all began on the Steve Cochran Show in Chicago this week when the presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania senator admitted that he has never visited Afghanistan.
“No, I was never in Afghanistan,” Santorum responded, explaining that he left the Senate Armed Services Committee soon after the September 11 attacks that led to the war.
Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin — who often writes sympathetically of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and dismissively of his rivals — reacted by writing a harsh critique, describing Santorum as “one of the most lightly traveled modern presidential candidates.”
Citing the Congressional Record, Rubin reported that Santorum made just two official international trips as a U.S. senator, to Italy in 2001 and 2005. Records show he also made a trip to what appears to be either Rome or Vatican City.
The Washington Post reported that Santorum’s senior adviser, John Brabender, claimed Santorum has made other international trips, but didn’t elaborate when asked if he has traveled to other hot spots.
A Santorum spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment from The Daily Caller about where else the former senator has traveled.
Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, by contrast, took a trip last year to Afghanistan, Israel, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.