Former President Barack Obama's letter to incoming President Donald was mostly "very gracious," but led with "caveats" that were "politically correct" digs at the new leader, former GOP challenge Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said Sunday.
"The introduction was a little, it was politically correct," the former senator told CNN's "State of the Union." "[Obama] didn't congratulate [Trump] on his victory, he congratulated him on his run. He also didn't say 'America supports you,' he said 'millions support you.'"
Santorum admitted those criticism's to be "nit-picking" of the presidential torch-passing letter revealed Sunday by CNN.
"So, there is a little caveat at the beginning, but after that moment I actually thought the letter was actually very gracious and well written," Santorum told the "State of the Union" panel.
Santorum also struck back at former President Obama's mention of U.S. leadership in the world as standing in opposition to Obama's own "lead from behind" policy.
"I actually found that piece of that remark in there saying that we need to provide international leadership, when in fact he wasn't providing international leadership on a whole host of things," Santorum said. "And Donald Trump actually is – North Korea is a good example of that. United States is leading on North Korea, whether you like necessarily what the president is saying or how he is doing it, it's another matter.
"But there is no question that he is stepping forward and trying to chart a different path than previous administrations have. In my opinion that's a good thing."
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