Rick Santorum on Trump's Proud Boy comments: He doesn't like condemning supporters

Former GOP Sen. Rick Santorum, a frequent defender of President Trump, said on CNN that Trump declined to explicitly condemn white supremacists when asked to at Tuesday's debate because he doesn't like to "say something bad about people who support him."

Why it matters: Trump has been criticized repeatedly throughout his tenure for his reticence to condemn right-wing violence, instead opting — as he did at the debate — to divert attention to Antifa and left-wing violence. Trump said on Tuesday that the far-right Proud Boys should "stand back and stand by" — a comment that the group is now seizing on as a dog whistle on online message boards.

What they're saying: "The Democrats owe a lot to Chris Wallace, because Chris Wallace asked those two questions, not Joe Biden. And he asked them for a reason. Because he asked two questions, where he was asking the president to do something he knows the president doesn't like to do," Santorum said on a CNN panel.

• "Which is say something bad about people who support him. Talking about the white supremacists."

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