Santorum piles on Paul over ISIS comments

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) is adding to the criticism of Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), a fellow Republican presidential candidate, for saying that Republicans contributed to the growth of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

{mosads}”Well, I would expect to hear that from maybe Bernie Sanders,” Santorum said in an interview with George Stephanopoulos aired on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday, referring to the Vermont senator who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“I don’t expect to hear that from someone running for the Republican nomination,” Santorum, fresh off declaring his own White House bid, added.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, considering a bid of his own, issued a statement on Wednesday ripping Paul and saying his comment blaming Republican hawks for the rise of ISIS made him unfit to be president.

“Right now there are 1,500 groups, many of them bad people, including ISIS, that hawks in our party have been arming,” Paul said during an early Wednesday interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party, who gave arms indiscriminately, and most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS,” he added.

The comments from Paul, who is known for his non-interventionist views on foreign policy, drew the ire of hawkish conservatives, including The Wall Street Journal, which slammed him in a Thursday editorial.

Santorum, who has signaled he intends to emphasize national security during his campaign, suggested Paul misunderstood ISIS, which the U.S. has been battling through local forces in Iraq and with airstrikes in Syria.

“ISIS didn’t come about because of the arms that America left behind,” Santorum said in his ABC interview.

“ISIS came about because they hate everything that we believe in and that we stand for. That’s what the problem is. They hate who we are, not necessarily what we do.”