Sen. Santorum: 'Taken Aback by,' but 'Understands,' Marital Fidelity Pledge
“The answer is yes,” former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum told CNN's Candy Crowley on Sunday when asked if he would sign a “fidelity pledge” promising to be faithful to his spouse.
“Certainly, I pledged fidelity to my wife when I was married to her...that's a pledge I've taken and take every single day as a married person and feel very comfortable making that public statement,” Santorum said.
Crowley also asked Santorum about the appropriateness of asking politicians to take such a pledge. “Do you find it intrusive?” and “doesn't that go a little over the top?” Crowley asked.
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Santorum admitted that, at first, he was “taken aback by it,” but he understands the reason politicians might be asked to make such a pledge.
“I can understand why they're saying it because it does undermine people's respect for the institution. In fact, for the people governing the country, if you can't be faithful to the people you're closest to, then how can we be faithful to those of us who you represent? So, I can understand it, why they're saying it. Would I have preferred it in there or not? I wasn't expecting it to be in there, but I certainly felt comfortable saying it.”
The pledge was written by a political organization in Iowa called, The Family Leader. Spousal fidelity is only one part of the pledge, which also includes opposition to the redefinition of marriage, support for a marriage amendment to the Constitution, protection of children from human trafficking, commitment to downsize the federal government, and recognition that “robust child bearing” is beneficial to the nation.
Santorum and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann are the only two candidates to have signed the pledge thus far.
The pledge caused a controversy last week when a portion of the preamble to the pledge suggested that black children were better off during the time of slavery. Bachmann faced some controversy over that portion of the pledge. A spokeswoman for Bachmann clarified to the press that she was signing the “vow,” not the preamble. In response to the controversy, The Family Leader removed the slavery reference from the preamble to the pledge and said they never meant to imply that children born into slavery were better off.
Santorum is currently way behind in most polls, garnering only 4 percent in the most recent Iowa poll. He also shows no increase in name recognition and is hovering around 49 percent, in the most recent Gallup survey. When asked why his campaign hasn't “caught fire,” Santorum responded, “We're running a different kind of campaign...the little engine that could campaign.”
