VIDEO: Rick Santorum Says He Has ‘Nothing To Do’ With His Own Campaign Slogan

Yesterday, I caught up with former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) after a town hall he hosted in Henniker, NH. Earlier that day, he announced his presidential run and unveiled his campaign slogan, “Fighting to make America America again.” ThinkProgress’ Ian Millhiser was quick to point out that “this eloquent turn of phrase” was actually “borrowed from the title of a pro-union, pro-racial justice, and pro-immigrant poem written by Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes — ‘Let America Be America Again.’”

I asked Santorum about the campaign slogan, which was already plastered at the front of the room under the official Santorum campaign posters. Santorum at first distanced himself from it, claiming “I had nothing to do with that.” Asked for a clarification, the former senator laughed and added that his campaign staff “didn’t inform” him about the origin of the phrase. However, Santorum said he has read “some” poems by Hughes:

heh.