Rick Santorum Aide Gaffe: Obama’s “Radical Islamic Policies”

Rick Santorum’s spokeswoman Alice Stewart said in a TV interview today that Santorum was referring to President Barack Obama’s “radical Islamic policies” when he said the president’s agenda was driven by “phony theology” – but then quickly called up MSNBC after the segment aired to say she misspoke.

“There is a type of theological secularism when it comes to the global warmists in this country. That’s what he was referring to. He was referring to the president’s policies in terms of the radical Islamic policies the president has,” Stewart said on “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”

Mitchell later said on the air that Stewart phoned the show after the interview to say she had slipped up and said “radical Islamic policies” instead of Obama’s “radical environmental policies.”

Mitchell noted she had missed Stewart’s phrasing of “radical Islamic policies” during the live interview.

“She had repeatedly said during that same interview ‘radical environmental policies’ and she said she slipped when she apparently said [it],” Mitchell said. “I did not hear it, or I would have caught her on it and tried to get a correction at the moment. I really, frankly, did not hear her use the word Islamic, but the tape tells the tale.”

Santorum said in Ohio on Saturday that Obama’s agenda is “not about you. It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phony ideal, some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology, but no less a theology.”

Santorum stood by his remarks later, telling reporters he wasn’t suggesting Obama is less of a Christian.

“No one’s suggesting that,” he said. “I’m suggesting, obviously we all know in the Christian church there are a lot of different stripes of Christianity. I’m just saying he’s imposing his values on the church and I think that’s wrong. … If the president says he’s a Christian, he’s a Christian.”

Santorum said on Sunday that he was referring to what he described as Obama’s radical views on the environment and on Monday, he continued attacking the president’s environmental record on the campaign trail.

During a panel discussion on MSNBC on Monday after Stewart’s slip of the tongue, The Washington Post’s Anne Kornblut said she thought Stewart would apologize for the comment, but that it may not stop conspiracy theorists from grabbing onto her statement.

“I expect we’re going to hear more from Alice Stewart apologizing about those remarks. But there will be conspiracy theorists thinking it was some kind of message she was trying to get out or it was really on the mind of the Santorum campaign when they are talking about President Obama,” Kornblut said.

{Politico/Matzav.com Newscenter}