Today on ABC, Santorum Rambles On and On About His Puerto Rico “English Only” Position

Mar 18, 2012
1:03 PM

This morning GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum made an appearance on "ABC This Week." Besides saying that his opponent Mitt Romney is more like President Obama than other GOP candidates and that he accepts an one-to-one debate with the former Massachusetts governor, Santorum tried to explain his position again about English Only mandates. In our opinion, he has no concept about Puerto Rico, its history, or its complex political dilemma. Although, he does make a point about Romney's Puerto Rico pandering, yet he seems to forget that this week he called himelf "Senador puertorriqueño."

Santorum said the following about his English Only comments (around 7:50 into the video clip below):

"There were [English Only] requirements put on other states when they came into the Union that English be the principal language and that it be taught and spoken universally in those states. There were several states, where as you know, there were other languages spoken in the Southwest, Oklahoma, Hawaii, and so it was a condition of admission to statehood and that's simply what I've said, only 15%, according to the Census, are fluent in English in Puerto Rico and what I've said is that obviously Puerto Rico is a Spanish-speaking country, a Spanish-speaking island, not a country, but Spanish-speaking island, they will continue to speak Spanish and that's their culture and they have every right to do so, but what I've said is that there should be fluency in English as well as Spanish and that, if they want to, and I think that it's just makes sense, just like here in this country, I mean, Governor Romney and I have both said that we would like English as the official language of this country yet when Governor Romney went to Puerto Rico he said, "Oh, no you don't have to speak English as a requirement to be a state," yet he wants English to be the official language of this country. This is the hypocrisy of Mitt Romney to go and pander for votes, knowing full well that there is no way that he would stand for that as Puerto Rico coming into statehood without having proficiency in English, yet to get 20 delegates, he is willing to say whatever he needs to say in order to get those votes, yet I'm hopeful that the people of Puerto Rico see through the charade of what Governor Romney will do to get votes."

Here is the entire interview.

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