Putting Kentucky clerk Kim Davis in jail for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses was "ridiculous," GOP candidate Rick Santorum said Friday, but it took that extreme for her to stand up for her beliefs, and he considers her "heroic."
"I commend her for standing up for her principles," Santorum told
CNN's "New Day" program Friday morning. "It's incumbent on the Congress and the legislature of Kentucky to step up and check the court and the president to check the court when it goes beyond its legal authority ... the Supreme Court acted unconstitutionally."
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The former Pennsylvania senator later in the morning told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" that had Davis practiced her faith, but not while on the job, then she would not have been following her beliefs.
"Why are we forcing people to do something that in some faiths is a grievous, serious sin?" Santorum said.
The judge in the case on Thursday told Davis that he would not put her in jail if she allowed her deputy clerks to issue the licenses, but she refused. While Davis remains in jail Friday,
one of her deputies issued a license for James Yates and William Smith, who had previously been denied one.
Santorum told the Fox program that a First Amendment defense act would allow people like Davis to "live by their own convictions."
Also on Fox Friday, Santorum discussed his current standings in the poll, and said that while they're "fun to report on," they "have no correlation to who is going to win the nomination."
"The Des Moines Register found 88 percent of Iowans hadn't made up their minds yet," he said.
"They are looking at a lot of candidates. There are a lot of new cars in the showroom. They will test drive a few. In the end, when they are looking at someone who has the experience to walk in as commander in chief, as it's not an entry-level position."
He also pointed out his own foreign affairs experience, in a comparison with a Donald Trump interview on Thursday, when the front-runner had difficulty answering questions about terrorism leaders and issues in Iran.
"One of the things I've talked about as an important part of my campaign is having someone with experience in this area," said Santorum.
"I authored the Iran sanctions bill 12 years ago to put constraints on their nuclear program and have been fighting against the Iranian death cult for the past dozen years plus ... experience does matter."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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