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Published January 27, 2017
The following is a partial transcript of the Oct. 29, 2006, edition of "FOX News Sunday With Chris Wallace":
"FOX NEWS SUNDAY" HOST CHRIS WALLACE: All right. We turn now to Pennsylvania, where Republican Senator Rick Santorum faces an uphill. Senator Santorum joins us from Pittsburgh. We invited his Democratic opponent, Bob Casey, but he was unavailable.
Senator, let's start with you as well, with the RealClearPolitics.com average of recent polls over the last month in Pennsylvania, and let's take a look at what they show, which is that you are training your Democratic challenger, Bob Casey, by more than 10 points. There's a new poll out today which shows you trailing by double digits.
Now, Senator, you have been in the Senate for 12 years. You are the number-three man in the Republican leadership in the Senate. Why shouldn't we look at this and say Pennsylvanians know who Rick Santorum is and they just aren't buying this hear?
SEN. RICK SANTORUM: Well, I think we have a lot of polls that show a lot different than that and we feel very, very good about our position right now. We've worked very hard. We've talked about the important issues of the day. We've gone out and talked about why we're facing this great evil.
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I gave a speech this past week called "The Gathering Storm of the 21st Century," where I laid out the evil that is confronting us, not just in the Middle East, but now with events of the last few weeks, in North Korea and in Venezuela and in what's going on in our own hemisphere. And I think the people of Pennsylvania are beginning to understand that we need leadership in Washington, D.C., who is going to confront these things, who is not going to hide, as my opponent has.
It's not surprising he's not on your show today. He's done virtually no interviews. He doesn't campaign at all. He hides from the public. He doesn't answer questions. It's because he has nothing to offer, and what he does have to offer, just sort of the old line, let's raise taxes, let's cut and run, and I don't think that's going to sell on election day in about a week and a half.
WALLACE: Senator, in these final days, as you mentioned, you're going after Bob Casey very hard on the issue of national security, and you've just put up an ad. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(UNKNOWN): Terrorists are trying to enter our country, yet Casey comes out for amnesty for illegals. We just can't take a chance on Bob Casey.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Bob Casey, alongside pictures of Kim Jong Il and Ahmadinejad and a mushroom cloud.
Senator Santorum, how do you justify making the case that he votes for amnesty for illegals and therefore is soft on terrorists?
SANTORUM: Well, he's against the deployment of a missile defense system. He's against the development of nuclear-tipped bunker-busting bombs that would be necessary to take out installations in Iran if that were to come. And we just saw this week Ahmadinejad announcing that they now have a second centrifuge to develop and enrich uranium...
WALLACE: But I'm asking you specifically about this. What you're going after him there is you say he supports amnesty for illegals and therefore he's soft on terrorists.
SANTORUM: Yes, Chris, you only showed a piece of that ad. The other things I just mentioned were part of that ad, as well as an NSA wiretap, which he refuses to take a position on it. He just said, well, we're work it out. This is a guy who doesn't understand what we're confronting. He has absolutely no clue.
When he comes out and I give a long speech, talking about these different threats, throwing the facts on the table, and his response is, well, 'Rick Santorum's fear-mongering.' No, I'm not fear-mongering. I'm describing the reality of what we confront, and there has to be people who are willing to stand up and do that.
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: Senator, if I may, let's talk about the reality of this situation with regard to the vote on illegal immigration. All he said was that he would have voted for the comprehensive immigration reform package that was passed by the Senate, a package, incidentally, that was supported by 23 of your Republican Senate colleagues, as well as President Bush. Does that make all of them soft on terror?
SANTORUM: Well, I think in that particular respect, yes. I think anything that says to the people of the world, if they can come into this country and break the law and cross our borders and we're going to give them amnesty, number one, you encourage more people to come and I think that does allow the opportunity for, if we do not secure our borders first, which is what now we're trying to do, after people rejected the Senate bill.
The overwhelming majority of Pennsylvanians have rejected the Senate bill because it puts the cart before the horse. We need to secure our borders first and if we don't we're going to have problems.
WALLACE: Senators, you're saying your Pennsylvania colleague, Arlen Specter, and George W. Bush, both of whom supported that bill, are soft on terrorists?
SANTORUM: All I would suggest is — I don't know how I can make it more clear, Chris. If we don't secure our borders first and what we say to people is that we're going to provide you amnesty if you cross into this country, you're going to get more people in this country that I believe could be a threat to this country, and I think we're seeing that.
WALLACE: Senator, you also link your opponent, Mr. Casey, to U.S. casualties in Iraq, because he has opposed some energy exploration here in the United States. Let's take a look at that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANTORUM: This is someone that is playing to environmental extremists to gather a few votes, get a little money, at the expense of our men and women sacrificing their lives in the Middle East.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Senator, I thought we went into Iraq to get rid of weapons of mass destruction.
SANTORUM: Well, I think everyone realizes, Chris, that the principal reason that Islamic fascism is the threat it is today is because they have resources and they have oil. And the only way we're going to confront holistically this threat, whether it's in Venezuela with their oil, or whether it's with Iran and the other Middle Eastern countries, is to develop energy security in this country. And that means we have to use all means necessary. He systematically takes energy security off the table by being against offshore drilling — China is drilling 50 miles off the shore of the United States of America, and he won't allow the United States to drill 100 miles off the shore.
He will allow 3,700 gas and oil wells to be drilled in western Pennsylvania last year, but he won't allow us to drill less than 1,000 wells on the North Slope of Alaska over the next 25 years.
Our men and women are out there and they're sacrificing because they have resources to be able to project power. The only reason Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon, Chris, is because they have the oil revenue and we're paying $70 and $80 a barrel for oil...
WALLACE: Senator, excuse me.
SANTORUM: We have to use every resource we have to become energy secure.
WALLACE: We've got about a minute left and I want to get into one last issue with you.
SANTORUM: OK.
WALLACE: Pennsylvania does not have a gay marriage ban on the ballot this year, but are you going to try to make gay marriage an issue, given the fact that the neighboring state of New Jersey, the supreme court there just said that same-sex couples should have full legal rights?
SANTORUM: Yes, my opponent and I are very different on this issue. He said he would fight against any state or federal constitutional amendment that would secure the right of the people to define what marriage is. He would allow the courts to impose a redefinition of marriage.
I don't believe in that. I believe on the great moral issues of our time, the people have a right to speak and say what their collective morality is, the kind of country that they want to live in, and a few unelected, in some cases, or even elected, judges should not impose that. He would go along with the unelected judges. He supports civil unions. He supports, in a sense, gay marriage without the word marriage.
WALLACE: Senator Santorum, we're going to have to leave it there. We want to thank you so much for coming in today.
SANTORUM: Thank you.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/transcript-pennsylvania-sen-rick-santorum-on-fox-news-sunday