ABC News’ Teddy Davis reports: Former Bush adviser Mark McKinnon is sorry for some of the things that he recently wrote about fellow Republican Rick Santorum. But the apology only goes so far.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Santorum tried to minimize a recent Daily Beast column in which McKinnon said a Santorum presidency would be “very, very dangerous.”
The presidential ambitions of the former Pennsylvania senator are in the news because he is planning to test the 2012 presidential waters in Iowa next monthand he is one of 10 Republicans whose name will be included in a Straw Poll ballot at this weekend’s Values Voters Summit in Washington, D.C.
Asked about the McKinnon column by ABC News, Santorum said: “Mark and I have emailed each other since . . . I haven’t commented on it, but all I would say is that Mark and I had an email exchange and I understand, I mean I think I was as tough as anybody on his candidate for president the person he worked for which was John McCain in the primary, and I used the term, and I think he was repeating it, I said that John McCain would be ‘very dangerous’ and so he amped up and put another ‘very’ in front of ‘very dangerous’ and applied it to me and I think it was as our email exchange illuminated I think it was a visceral reaction of someone who felt that I had unfairly gone after his candidate and so he wanted to respond in kind.”
Santorum continued: “I think he has subsequently thought better of it and at least I won’t say everything he said but many of the things that he said in that initial posting he has apologized for, and apology accepted no harm done, you know we’ve all done and said things at the moment that we wish we had not said and done. I’m sure that Mark would tell you that he still has some concerns about my candidacy and that’s well and good, and I’m sure there will be many who do, and that’s part of the political process.”
When contacted by ABC News, McKinnon confirmed that he had, indeed, apologized to Santorum.
McKinnon, however, only apologized for one portion of his Aug. 12 column — the part which discusses the senator’s family.
In the initial version of his story, McKinnon wrote: “I’m a pretty tolerant guy, but beyond his ideology, some of Santorum’s behavior is just a little bizarre. For example, Santorum has six children. In 1996, he had son born prematurely who lived for only two hours. He and wife brought the child home and introduced the dead infant to the rest of their children as ‘your brother Gabriel’ and slept with the body overnight.”
McKinnon deeply regrets the reference to Santorum’s son, something which he expressed to Santorum.
“I made a big mistake in that column by letting my anger get the better of me and talking about Rick Santorum’s kid,” said McKinnon. “I thought that was highly inappropriate. It was mean spirited and it was precisely the kind of thing that I have been preaching against — not to mention that it diverted from my primary argument which was the hypocritical way in which he went after McCain (in the 2008 presidential campaign) after relying on McCain’s help in his (Pennsylvania) re-election campaign.”
As for McKinnon’s charge that a Santorum presidency would be “very, very dangerous for America,” McKinnon is not apologizing one bit.
“I’m not apologizing for anything else and I’m still very angry for the McCain situation,” said McKinnon.
Asked if he would still call a Santorum presidency “very dangerous,” McKinnon said he absolutely would.
“Oh, yeah, I think he’s very dangerous in terms of his politics,” said McKinnon. “I think it’s dangerous for the country and it’s dangerous for the Republican Party.”
“I want to regain a Republican majority,” McKinnon continued. “I think if the Senator Santorums of the Republican Party prevail, we will be in the minority for the foreseeable future.”
Asked to identify which of Santorum’s views he was referring to, McKinnon said, “He is radically anti-gay, radically- anti-immigrant. Those are two that I feel very strongly about where I think the Republican Party needs to change course.”
When asked about the “personal autonomy” issues criticized in McKinnon’s column, Santorum declined the opportunity to discuss them, saying, “My record has been pretty clear on that and I’ll just leave it at that.”
While McKinnon thinks that Santorum would be damaging to the Republican brand nationally, the former Bush adviser is not ruling out the former senator’s chances in Iowa, a state whose Republican Party is heavily influenced by social conservatives.
“I told Rick that if he runs in Iowa, I think he’s got a great shot to win it,” said McKinnon.
Santorum made his comments on a conference call with reporters organized by the Republican National Committee. The purpose of the call was to discuss President Obama’s Tuesday afternoon fundraiser for Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., the veteran Republican lawmaker who switched parties earlier this year.
ABC News’ Brittany Crockett contributed to this report.
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