Rick Santorum defends Satan comments

Rick Santorum said Tuesday that he will “defend everything I’m saying” as 2008 comments he made about Satan having his “sights on” the United States drew renewed fire.

Santorum told roughly 200 supporters at a rally here that when candidates veer from “very structured, very ordered events,” voters believe they have to “worry about everything he says.”

“No, you don’t, because I’ll defend everything I’ll say,” Santorum told the applauding crowd, pledging to “tell you the truth about what’s going on in this country.”

Santorum didn’t specifically mention the four-year-old speech from Ave Maria University in Florida, from which the Satan comments came or a number of other statements on the campaign trail that have raised eyebrows in recent days, including remarks that some say called into question President Barack Obama’s Christian faith. Questions have also arisen over comments Santorum made that appeared to compare the Obama presidency to the rise of Nazism before World War II and remarks about prenatal testing.

Asked about the Ave Maria speech by reporters following the Phoenix rally, Santorum called the question “a joke” and “absurd.”

“You know… I’m a person of faith. I believe in good and evil. I think if somehow or another because you’re a person of faith you believe in good and evil is a disqualifier for president we’re going to have a very small pool of candidates who can run for president,” Santorum said.