Santorum On Debate Process: 'They Wouldn't Let Anybody In'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Former Pennsylvania Senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum criticized FOX News and Republican National Committee for their handling of the first Republican presidential debate process.
Santorum, who was relegated to a late afternoon debate with six other candidates not polling well enough to meet the FOX criteria for the prime time debate, told Dom Giordano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT that he objected to the lack of an audience in a vacant arena.
"The initial frustration was walking out on stage and having nobody in the arena, which was off putting to some people and some people were, pretty much, thrown of their game by it. In fact, several admitted it. The sad thing was the RNC didn't allow anybody to come in. That's what people don't know. It's not that people didn't want to come. People wanted to come but they weren't allowed in. They actually wanted an empty hall. None of us knew that."
He said an audience would've changed the dynamic of the atmosphere, giving them a more comparable experience to the later debate.
"They locked the doors. They wouldn't let anybody in. That was part of the conversation afterwards. Look at the dynamism and the energy in the room because you had all these people [at the prime time debate] and you had to muster your own energy. It was almost like a one-on-one interview and if you're doing an one-on-one interview it's hard to project that kind of passion. I thought we did okay but I think other folks found it off-putting."
Santorum was also disappointed with the lack of diversity in the questions asked during the session.
"One of the failings of the debate was it didn't really focus in on showing where the differences were between the candidates. It was general, softball questions to most of the folks up there about issues where there was pretty broad agreement. That doesn't make for the best debate and doesn't help people be able to determine who the person is that actually most aligns with them."