During an interview with "Fox & Friends" Wednesday morning, Rick Santorum said the Islamic State quoted him more accurately than one of the country's most respected news organizations.
In addition to committing barbarous acts of violence across large swathes of the Middle East, ISIS also happens to publish a propaganda magazine called Dabiq. Under the headline “In the Words of the Enemy,” the publication included the former Republican senator on a list of “crusaders," along with former CIA station chief Gary Berntsen and Virginia state Sen. Richard H. Black.
“They are not losing ground,” Santorum is quoted as saying in the magazine. “They are not being discredited in the eyes of the Muslim world. They will get stronger.”
While the publication of Santorum's words was intended to prove how fearful the West is of ISIS, the 2012 presidential candidate was somehow able to find a silver lining.
“Well, the difference is ISIS actually quoted me accurately compared to The New York Times," he told a laughing Steve Doocy, "which is sort of a remarkable comment on the state of the media today."
Santorum also claimed that the inclusion of his quote in Dabiq spoke to the veracity of his claims about ISIS.
"I described who they are, what they were about, what they wanted to accomplish, and they put it out there because it accurately described who they are, which is, again, a comment on this administration and their unwillingness to deal directly with the truth about who ISIS is," he said. “I took it as them actually finding an American politician who actually described them as to who they really are.”
"So they were just reporting the facts," Doocy said in response.
H/T Washington Post