This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," February 27, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And joining me now on in this primary eve from Michigan is presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. I'm not sure if you were able to hear Governor Romney. He complained about a robo-call that he says your campaign is running. I believe this is the one that he was talking about. I want to give you a chance to respond.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: On Tuesday, join Democrats who are going to send a loud message to Massachusetts Mitt Romney by voting for Rick Santorum for president. This call is supported by hard working Democratic men and women and paid for by Rick Santorum for president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: He said it was a low moment in the campaign, and I figured I would give you a chance to respond.
FORMER SEN. RICK SANTORUM, R-PA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You mean when he runs a robo-call of my voice from four years ago saying good things about him, that's not a low moment? And when I run a call basically calling Democrats that are eligible to vote here, to vote for us -- encouraging people to come and vote for us, and we talk about our manufacturing plan and what we are going to do to create jobs, it's a very positive robo-call. Talking about, you know, what we are doing to create jobs here in Michigan.
And of course, you know, it's interesting that we criticize me for attracting Democrats because one of the things that the Governor Romney's people say is, oh, he can't attract Democrats. Well, guess what? We will wait and see. I think we can. And that's one of the things that's got them nervous that we've got a lot of folks in this state, they are looking at our plan and looking at the ideas we have to get the manufacturing sector of this economy growing again here in Michigan, that are very excited about maybe having Rick Santorum on that ticket.
HANNITY: You did support Governor Romney in 2008, and you said he was a conservative. Is that one of those moments you regret or do you look at it as the circumstances? What has changed, in other words, in four years?
SANTORUM: Well, you know, I waited until five days before the Super Tuesday primary when it was down to McCain and Romney. And you know, I had served with John McCain and I knew that he wasn't the conservative and Mitt Romney promised me that he would be a conservative, that he had changed his ways and he was going to be a different person as a presidential candidate. And then a few months after the primaries, he walked out and supported the Wall Street bailouts and having government get involved in a very big way.
And then he subsequently he's gone out and seen the debacle that Romneycare is. And of course, Romneycare is none of the issues of health care and issue four years ago. But it's the central issue in this race. Obamacare, which was born from Romneycare. Unfortunately, Governor Romney is a good man. I have nothing negative to say about Governor Romney as a person. The bottom line is because of his record in Massachusetts on health care, he is uniquely unqualified to take on Barack Obama on a bill that's identical to the bill he supported and to say, I'm against it only because it's a federal program instead of a state program is not the best way to make the case that government-run health care is a bad idea.
HANNITY: You know, I was watching some of the interviews you were giving this weekend and it's interesting because President Obama have said Republicans want dirty air, water, kids with autism, Down Syndrome to fend for themselves. I never saw such outrage but you said that the president was a snob and it is like the worse thing they have ever heard. Let me play the tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANTORUM: President Obama once said, he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
There are good, decent, men and women who go out and work hard every day and put their skills to test that aren't taught by some liberal college professor and trying to indoctrinate them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: A lot of people -- let's see, mechanics, computer people, I can go through a whole -- electricians, plumbers.
SANTORUM: Men and women in the military.
HANNITY: Some people in the military. They don't have college degrees. What were you trying convey there?
SANTORUM: Well, the idea that I was talking about it in a rift where I was talking about how here's Barack Obama who is trying to tell you what's best for you, trying to tell you what health care plan you can have, tell you, you know, what light bulb you're going to be able to turn on if we put cap-and-trade into place, tell you what loans you're going to get with the consumer financial protection bureau. This is a top-down, we know best for you, we're going to run your life and you are going to like it attitude and then he comes out and said, everybody should go to college. I mean, this is the kind of stuff that I think, you know, people have had enough of. We can manage our lives very well, Mr. President. Just give us opportunity. Don't try to guarantee quality of result. Just try to work on creating the quality of opportunities for everybody and that means the quality of opportunity to go to a trade school, to go to the military, to serve our country and to serve this economy in the ways that people want to do, not what he thinks is best.
HANNITY: Let me ask you, there was a very interesting exchange you had this weekend with George Stephanopoulos over the issue of church and state. And it was -- I thought your answer was something I had never heard anybody else say, and it was referring to JFK and a speech he had given. Let me roll this tape.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE FROM "THIS WEEK"/ABC)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA": Early in the campaign, you talked about John F. Kennedy's famous speech to the Baptist ministers in Houston back in 1960. Here is what you had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANTORUM: Earlier (ph) in my political career, I had the opportunity to read the speech, and I almost threw up. You should read the speech.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: That speech has been read, as you know, by millions of Americans. Its themes were echoed in part by Mitt Romney in the last campaign. Why did it make you throw up?
SANTORUM: Because the first line, first substantive line in the speech says, "I believe in America where the separation of church and state is absolute." I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: This was fascinating to me because that moment was key as we all recall for JFK because there was a fear as president being a Catholic that he would take, you know, instructions from the pope in the Vatican. And so, it was often referred to historically, but you are saying, no, he was wrong. I want you to give more explanation on that.
SANTORUM: No, no, no, no, he wasn't wrong on that.
HANNITY: Not, not on that part but this part.
SANTORUM: Yes, he was absolutely right. I mean, you know, certainly he had every right to go out and in fact he should have gone out and said what he said about the Pope controlling things and the Catholic Church dictating to him. Absolutely not. But he went much, much farther than that. What he did, and you go on and read the speech, he will consult with nobody of faith. People of faith, you know, should stay out. You know, it was basically banishing people of faith and faith claims from the public square. A radical view. Free exercise of religion, it means that people have a right not just to worship in their church, but to go out in the public square, people of faith, people of no faith, people of different faith. Bring it all in and have this discussion. That's what Madison referred to as the perfect remedy, how we can get along by making sure that everybody who has their passions forged by a variety of different things has the ability to go out and make those passions known and let it work it out through the process of in this great republic.
And what we see, what we saw with Kennedy is saying, nope, nope, you know, people of faith, we're not going to pay attention to them. And that really started, in my opinion, this privatization of faith that we are seeing to now to the point that not only is faith being privatized, but the opposite is occurring. Instead of, you know, people of faith being able to participate in the public square or with the government, now the government is it telling people of faith how to practice their faith. Which is -- should be a separation of church and state. That's what Thomas Jefferson wrote about in this letter to the Danbury Baptist, don't let the government infringe upon your freedom and Obama and Kennedy turn it on his head and say, don't let people with faith have an impact on the government. That's just a complete misreading on the First Amendment.
HANNITY: We will be watching very closely tomorrow night in Michigan and Arizona. And Super Tuesday is right around the corner, Senator. Thanks so much for your time, as always.
SANTORUM: My pleasure. Thank you, Sean.
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