It's rare when a politician says something surprising, or doesn't succumb to a feel-good suggestion. Which made Rick Santorum's response to Joe Scarborough this morning doubly remarkable.
On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough had teed Santorum up to agree with his suggestion that we need to "reach out aggressively to let Muslim Americans know that they are every bit a part of the American dream as you or me." But Santorum turned the tables, saying "I would ask that in reverse: what are they going to do to reach out to make sure they are confronting --" Scarborough broke in: "no, no, no. I don't think so." But a composed Santorum went on to calmly make his case, calling out in particular CAIR for "continuing to apologize for the radicals."
Question: why did Joe think it was apposite to mention that many American Muslims are "extraordinarily wealthy?"
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I do want to follow up on a question asked Donald Trump last week when she was pressing him over and over again. What do we do so Muslim Americans, who--many are extraordinarily wealthy--I saw a report that they make up 1% of the population and 10% of the doctors in America. How do we work--at the same time we're trying to stamp out Islamic radicalism--reach out aggressively to let Muslim Americans know that they are every bit as part of the American dream as you or me?
RICK SANTORUM: Well the answer is, I would ask that in reverse: what are they going to do to reach out to do to make sure that they are confronting the --
JOE: No, no, no: I don't think so.
SANTORUM: I disagree with you, Joe.
JOE: You say, that suggests, Rick, that 95% of Muslim Americans are complicit in the acts of, let's say, San Bernardino.
SANTORUM: No one's, Joe, no one's suggesting that. But the bottom line is this. There are Muslims in this country who are doing that, who are actually going out and trying to establish a reform Islam and trying to deal with the problem, the cancer within Islam, and it's real. And the bottom line is that many Muslims are simply not doing that. And there are organizations like CAIR who are actually continuing to apologize for the radicals and actually have influence in both of the last two administrations to not bring Islam into, not out of the seventh century, bring that version of Islam out of the seventh century, I'll take that for now. Bring that version of Islam out of the seventh century and begin to do something to move a reform movement.
