Posted on by Leo Vidal

Republican Backlash: Santorum Blasts Trump For Bowing to Washington Elite

Ultra-conservative former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum was not happy or impressed with President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, according to comments he made afterwards on CNN. According to Santorum, Trump’s pick of Kavanaugh was not going to go over well in conservative circles.  He said that the choice the president made proves that instead of giving in to conservatives he “bowed to the elite in Washington.”

“Rick Santorum says President Trump “bowed to the elite in Washington” by picking Judge Brett Kavanaugh as his Supreme Court nominee”

“Well, I think that Donald Trump said he was going to energize the base with this pick. I don’t think he did that. I think a lot of the folks at the base really were sort of turned off to Brett Kavanaugh for the same reasons you discussed a few minutes ago,” Santorum said.

Then he added: “Kavanaugh is from Washington. He is the establishment pick. He is the Bush pick. His father was a judge. His mother was a judge. It just seems like Trump in this case just bowed to the elite in Washington. I think that’s going to rub a lot of people the wrong way. I don’t think it’s going to be a game changer.”

Santorum’s comments are important because they represent the views of possibly millions of conservatives who are strongly “pro-life” and who believe that abortion rights need to be restricted and possibly eliminated entirely.  He would be in favor of reversing the Supreme Court’s pro-abortion ruling in Roe v. Wade.

On the other hand, Kavanaugh may not be strongly pro-life. Clearly Santorum doesn’t think so.

In fact it’s true that many observers, including Democratic New Jersey Senator Corey Booker, said after the selection of Kavanaugh that he was chosen because he had expressed the view that a sitting president could not be charged with crimes or even interviewed by prosecutors.

According to Booker, Trump “picked the one guy who has specifically written that a president should not be the subject of a criminal investigation which the president is right now. So this seems to be, of all the people, the most self-serving person he could choose in order to protect himself from this criminal investigation.”

Even though he is a liberal, Booker’s comments actually support Santorum’s view that Kavanaugh was not chosen for his ultra-conservative views on abortion or gay marriage, but for the protection he offers the president.  Once again Donald Trump has shown that he makes decisions based on his own self-interest, and even a Supreme Court selection is all about him.