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Santorum News Conference; Santorum Suspending Campaign
Aired April 10, 2012 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Stand Your Ground," 15 states use the exact same language in their bills. That's according to the Sunlight Foundation. ALEC itself says while it did not write "Stand Your Ground," it helped spread it beyond Florida.
KAITLYN BUSS, SPOKESWOMAN, ALEC: It is one of our model policies, but we have, you know, a broad area of policy topics and it's really, you know, up to a legislature of his or her particular state what their constituents need and what they find, you know, to be the most pressing problem facing them.
SNOW: Another controversial law ALEC has pushed is the voter ID bill in multiple states. The group caught the attention of Tim Smith, who's in charge of social responsible investing at Walden Asset Management. He says he spoke to Coca-Cola last year along with the trade union in calling for better transparency.
TIM SMITH, WALDEN ASSET MANAGEMENT: ALEC is out there trying to put legislation into place in states all around the country. And you've got to look very seriously at what that legislation says and whether you want your company to be associated with it.
SNOW (on camera): Companies that cut ties with ALEC say they were only involved in issues that had a direct impact on their businesses. But with big names distancing themselves, liberal advocacy groups say they'll continue to turn up the pressure on more companies.
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ashleigh Banfield.
Hey, Ashleigh.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Suzanne. Thanks very much.
And I'm Ashleigh Banfield, in for Brooke Baldwin today. And we're going to begin with some rocking and rolling.
Breaking news as we wait for Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum to speak live in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It's going to be the first time that he's spoken publicly since his three year old daughter Bella was released from the hospital just yesterday. He canceled several campaign events, including a stop at his old law school.
And just to be very clear, while this was a campaign event, it is now officially a news conference and not a campaign event. We're going to bring it to you live as it happens. And there's a lot of speculation and a lot of people who have been asking just what exactly is this that we're about to hear from the former senator from Pennsylvania, a current candidate for the Republican nomination. He has been fighting a pitched battle, mostly against Mitt Romney, to try to gain as many delegates as possible, but has not been able to clear the number of delegates to put him in the kind of running that Mitt Romney has been getting in the last several week where he's been the presumed nominee by so many accounts.
Let me take you to Jim Acosta, who has been following the campaign. He's live in Gettysburg. He's at the event right now.
So as much speculation and not a whisper from the campaign itself about this, Jim?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, maybe more than a whisper, Ashleigh. I can just tell you that a few moments ago I had a chance to catch up with John Brabender (ph). He is a senior strategist with the Santorum campaign. He was out in the hallway, outside of this ballroom -- well, I guess I should say this is not really a ballroom. Wouldn't be much of a ball if it was in here. But sort of a meeting room here inside this hotel in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
And I asked him about this "Washington Post" report that is out there that Rick Santorum is going to suspend his campaign. He said to me, I'm not going to steer you toward or away from that report. And then he sort of walked out of the room and went outside. So I can tell you that is one of those signs that you see when something is happening. And I will tell you that things have changed for the Santorum campaign, at least when it comes to this event that we're about to watch here in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
It started out as an event, but now it is a news conference. And I can tell you, just a few moments ago we have gotten word -- CNN is now reporting that Rick Santorum is suspending his campaign. We've just gotten this news a few moments ago. And that is coming from our John King. He says he's got this from a senior adviser to the campaign. So now word is starting to get out. I can tell you, actually, that Senator Santorum is getting out of this race. At least suspending his campaign for now.
BANFIELD: All right, Jim, I want to jump over to -- suspending, suspending. Thank you for clarifying.
I want to jump over to John King, who's live in Washington, D.C., for us.
You've been working your sources, John. And as you obviously just passed that note to Jim Acosta, tell me a little bit more about what you found out.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Suspending, Ashleigh, is really a technical term here. The senator is ending his campaign. I'm going to have to pull this out. I'm getting a little feedback here. But by saying he's suspending his campaign, he can continue to raise money, he can continue to file for federal matching funds, he continues to do the organizational things that are necessary and he would be still available were something to happen.
But I'm told by a senior campaign advisor that Senator Santorum, for both family reasons and for political reality reasons, has decided now to suspend his campaign for presidency and, I am told, look for him to acknowledge the fact that he believes it is all but certain now that the former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, will be the Republican nominee for president.
Why now? We do know on the family front he's had more recently difficulty again with his young daughter Bella, who was just released from the hospital early this morning.
We also know that Pennsylvania was to be his last stand. It was the state he represented in the House and in the Senate. He was leading in the early polls there, but in recent days there have been indications and polling showing Governor Romney might embarrass Senator Santorum in his home turf.
This is a very proud man, Ashleigh. This is the candidate who, remember, was at 1 percent not long before the Iowa caucuses. He has scrapped and clawed to be in this race. He has emerged as the greatest threat to Governor Romney and it's been a tough one in the past few weeks as they deal with the delegate math, as they deal with the fundraising realities. But I'm told he will suspend his candidacy today. Don't count Rick Santorum out. In his mind, in his campaign team's mind, it was important to exit gracefully, exit at the right time because they believe, should Governor Romney go on and be the nominee and lose in November, that Senator Santorum will be a viable Republican candidate the next time around, Ashleigh.
Let me put this back in so I can hear you.
BANFIELD: All right. And as I wait for you to put that back in so you can hear my question, John, we have been sort of wondering all along, this is the second time, as you mentioned the family reasons, this is the second time that his daughter Bella was hospitalized during the campaign. He canceled a -- I think a couple of events last time that she was in the hospital and this time. How much of this is family? How much of this is the embarrassment factor, the delegate count factor, and the factor that moving on maybe he couldn't be as convinced that he could pull off those additional races in the Midwest and down in Texas, et cetera.
KING: Only the senator can answer the question, the balance between political reality and family. I've known him for many years. I've spoken to him many times about his young daughter when I was with him out in Iowa, when he was at 1 and 2 percent back last winter. Ashleigh, he talked about how hard it was to be away from her. So there's no question that her condition, her health is always a factor to him and he has to answer, you know, what percentage is this and what percentage is that and we'll hear from him momentarily. He also knows the political reality and he has for some time said, you know, well, I'm not out of this yet. Maybe there's an upset to be had here. But he had opportunities. He went down, invested in Puerto Rico, a small caucus. Who thought Puerto Rico would matter. He went down and invested, tried to upset Governor Romney there, he failed. In other places he has tried to beat Governor Romney on his home tuff and failed.
And now he's facing the very tough reality that, not certain, but quite possible and some would say even likely that Governor Romney was going to bit him on his home turf. And so you have a calculation, do you want to lose at home in Pennsylvania if you think in the back of your mind, 2016 could be right for you. There could be a job for you should Governor Romney go on and win the election. But you believe in some capacity you have a future has a leader in the conservative movement, a future as a leader in the Republican Party, did you want to lose at home? There's no question, there's no question that the changing poll numbers, the changing political terrain in Pennsylvania and the pressure from friends around the country, some of them who may not like Governor Romney, who may not be enamored with the possibility, the prospect, the likelihood of Romney as the nominee, but they see it as inevitable now and they don't want to hurt the party. And Rick Santorum is a proud individual, but he's also a Republican and he gets the politics.
BANFIELD: John, I want to ask you in a moment about that possible job in any kind of Mitt Romney administration. But hold on to that thought for a moment. I want to skip over to Wolf Blitzer, who's standing by live, anchor of "The Situation Room" as well.
You know, do the math for me and let me know how this works going forward. If, in fact, this is what we're about to hear, that Senator Santorum is going to suspend his campaign. What happens with all of his delegates at this point?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": Well, a lot of them, you know, will be open to -- at the convention to decide who they want to vote for. But it looks like they will all coalesce, most of them at least, around Mitt Romney. Rick Santorum was really the only remaining threat to prevent Mitt Romney from getting to that magic number of 1,144. With Santorum suspending or dropping out of this race, Mitt Romney is going to have a much easier path to insuring that he will have enough delegates to guarantee he will be the Republican nominee.
So for all practical purposes, Ron Paul can stay in the race, Newt Gingrich can stay in the race, but they're not going to be able to prevent him from reaching that number. So on this day, Ashleigh, it's a very important day. It's clear -- it's abundantly clear to everyone now that the general election campaign has started once and for all with Rick Santorum suspending, effectively dropping out of this race. It will be Mitt Romney versus President Barack Obama for the White House in November of this year. So the general election campaign for all practical purposes begins on this day and will go forward.
All of these primaries that are coming up, they will go through the motions in Pennsylvania on April 24th, in New York and Rhode Island, some of the other states. In May, they'll have some primaries. But for all practical purposes, it is over right now. And what we had suspected after the last series of primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and D.C., that Santorum has it for all practical purposes, today we can definitively say it's over. Rick -- that Mitt Romney is the Republican presidential nominee.
BANFIELD: All right, hold that thought for a moment, Wolf Blitzer, as we continue to look at our live pictures on the right-hand side of your screen. We're -- on the right-hand side of your screen. We're just waiting for Senator Santorum to take to that microphone. This was to be a campaign event. It is officially now called a news conference. We're waiting for that announcement. At this point CNN telling everyone now that he's going to suspend this campaign. We're going to sneak in a quick break, but we have our a-team waiting. Jim Acosta, Wolf Blitzer, John King. Back with more right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Breaking news to bring you from CNN. You are looking at a live picture of a place where you about to hear a significant announcement in this 2012 race for the Republican nominee. Senator Rick Santorum is expected to take that microphone and announce that he is suspending his campaign at this time.
This was supposed to be a campaign event. It has, instead, turned into an official news conference. People have been waiting. We've been given a two minute warning, but we know how that can work.
So in the meantime, I also want to bring in my colleague, Jim Acosta, who has been on the trail with Rick Santorum.
You've been talking to your sources and I asked John King this earlier, Jim Acosta, I said how much of this decision is based on the family pressures that he's been dealing with, his young daughter Bella having been released from the hospital for the second time during this campaign just yesterday, how much of this is the pressures of the campaign and the lag in that delegate count?
ACOSTA: Well, you know, this is not the first health scare that the Santorum family has had with little Bella. You know, this has happened before where she's been rushed to the hospital and the Santorum campaign has had to sort of, you know, go on standby mode a little bit while they deal with personal matters. And so this is not really new to them.
I will say, though, that, you know, this one sort of fits in with, you know, the timing of all of this, which, you know, which will raise the question, and it will be asked at this press conference, that is, you know, has her condition gotten to the point where perhaps now is a better time for your family to not be in campaign mode? And so perhaps that is a part of this.
But, you know, John was talking about this, and Wolf was talking about this a few moments ago, there's some huge political reasons as to why Rick Santorum is suspending his campaign now. And, first and foremost, he does not want to go down having lost this state twice. You'll recall back in 2006 he lost very badly to Bob Casey -- lost his Senate seat to Bob Casey, who is now the current senator from Pennsylvania. And had Rick Santorum lost this state again to Mitt Romney, obviously that would have badly damaged his prospects down the road.
And, you know, John was just saying a few moments ago that there have been people friendly to Rick Santorum who have been urging him in recent days to get out of this race. One of them is Richard Land (ph), who is a noted, very prominent Southern Baptist conservative Republican, who was saying on CBS's "Face The Nation" just yesterday that it was time for Rick Santorum to get out of this race. And in eight years from now, assuming that Mitt Romney wins in the fall and then wins re-election, this is in Richard Land's words, Rick Santorum would be three years younger than Mitt Romney is right now at that point.
So I think people friendly to Rick Santorum have been trying to say in every way possible, there really is no way to win this, you know, by earning enough delegates to clinch the nomination without taking this to a contested convention and the best thing to do for the Republican party is to get out now. And I think he is finally starting to heed that advice, realizing that if he were to take this further, take this perhaps into June, badly damage Mitt Romney in May -- remember, Ashleigh, a lot of these primaries and caucuses that are set for May, really tailor-made for Rick Santorum. Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina, Indiana. Those are more Santorum states than they are Romney states. That could have badly damaged Romney in May and hurt him heading into June.
So this makes sense for Rick Santorum to get out now politically and from a family reason as well.
Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: And this all just about, by my count, about a week since a conservative meeting urging them to -- urging other conservatives to try to rally behind a strong conservative nominee, as I recall.
ACOSTA: Yes.
BANFIELD: I want to go over to Wolf Blitzer now.
And, Wolf, this is also coming on the heels of these strong statements. The polls are looking good in Pennsylvania. Rick Santorum saying I am taking this to Pennsylvania and I'm going to win that state. Mitt Romney also conceding that he's likely to win his home state.
BLITZER: You know, it was clearly an uphill struggle for Rick Santorum, even in his own home state of Pennsylvania, where the Mitt Romney folks and the super PAC that supports Mitt Romney, they were getting ready to spend $2 million or $3 million in advertising over the next two weeks to crush him. Two weeks from today is the Pennsylvania primary.
And it would have been so embarrassing if Santorum would have been humiliated in his own home state. And if he's looking ahead to 2016, and I suspect he is, he's still relatively young. He's only in his mid 50s right now. This is a very graceful way for him to drop out. It's a very graceful way to set the scene, potentially, for four years down the road. I know that's a long time, but these politicians tend to look at their futures down the road.
So once he announces he's suspending, technically he'll still be able to raise some money. But for all practical purposes, on this date, April 10, 2012, it became a general election between Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama. So the general election campaign, for all practical purposes, has begun.
Dana Bash is watching all of this.
Dana, you've covered the Santorum campaign for a long time. You know the former senator. I'm sure this was a very, very difficult decision for him. And you've got to give him a lot of credit. He came from almost nowhere to do so well, eventually win in Iowa. And he's had a remarkably successful campaign, but not successful enough.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No. Exactly. And, look, I mean even he was surprised, frankly, at how far he had come given where he was not long before the Iowa caucuses, which is basically an asterisk in the polls.
I have to tell you that despite the very clear writing on the wall, the very clear math that Rick Santorum did not have enough delegates and would not be able to get enough delegates short of a miracle to get the nomination, his campaign aids, his top -- people who were the closest to him, even as soon as maybe the past week, were very, very, you know, intent on saying that Rick Santorum is not going to quit before Pennsylvania.
So, knowing him -- and as you've said, I've covered him for years -- and the kind of person he is, it's very clear that two things had to have happened, or at least two things. One is the whole idea of potentially losing his home state, as many of my colleagues have talked about already, was probably too much. And also the fact that he had been home with his sick daughter Bella probably put things into perspective given where things were. And I can also tell you that our Peter Hamby was reporting that Senator Santorum had a conference call shortly -- a few minutes ago with his wife and with the campaign manager and tried to buck up his staff saying, you know, we're not going to give up. Clearly he understands that his future is also at stake here because there were a lot of Republicans looking at him saying, OK, all right already, we've got to turn the focus now to Barack Obama.
BLITZER: Yes, I'm sure that's the focus going to be on the Republicans.
Dana, stand by. John King is standing by as well.
John, we're hearing that Senator Santorum has placed a phone call to Governor Romney, to, I guess, give him a head's up that he is about to suspend his campaign. KING: I have a Republican source saying that, Wolf, saying that Senator Santorum, just not that long ago, called Governor Romney to tell him he was prepared to do this. And I'm told by that source, Senator Santorum said he wants to help. The source wouldn't tell me much more about the conversation. He said, let Senator Santorum speak first.
But that's key. That's very a very critical point. He wants to help. Because Governor Romney faces a huge challenge. You see the gender gap in the polls when he's paired up against President Obama. You also see to his right, Governor Romney's right, a lot of wounds in the Republican Party. Just days ago it was Senator Santorum saying, every time we nominate a moderate, and he calls Romney a moderate, we lose. Senator Santorum, just days ago, saying on the health care issue, which is a huge issue to Republican voters and a huge issue before the country right now, Mitt Romney would be the worst possible candidate to put up against President Obama because he has the Massachusetts health care plan on which parts of were used as a model for the Obama health care plan.
So, Senator Santorum has been part of the tough language, part of the tough criticism of Governor Romney and lately has been the toughest of his critics in this Republican primary. And so the fact that in this phone call I'm told he said he wants to help. It will be viewed quite favorably by the Romney campaign, which has a very difficult challenge now. Even as he must go forward, through these remaining primaries to mathematically clinch the nomination, he has problems on his right with the conservative base, but he has problems to the center of the electorate with women and independents. So the sooner the better is the Romney campaign's reaction to this. They don't want to say anything officially, though, Wolf, until Senator Santorum has his say in just a couple of moments.
BLITZER: Yes, and I suspect, And I'm curious to see what you think, that this will put enormous pressure on Newt Gingrich to follow suit. Newt Gingrich is not going to get the delegates. His campaign is not really moving forward. I suspect there will be enormous pressure on Newt Gingrich, given the enormous debt his campaign already has, he doesn't want to emerge from this in personal debt much bigger than he already is. I suspect eventually, sooner rather than later, he'll suspend -- technically suspend his campaign as well.
KING: Very tough call because Speaker Gingrich, who has dialed back his rhetoric, who has said publicly Governor Romney is most likely the nominee, also has said he wants to stay in this race to elevate the policy discussions. He says it's been too personal, been to petty between the candidates and not enough about big policy issues. If you're Speaker Gingrich right now, you will face pressure saying, get out, clear the field, it's time to have the coronation, time to do the heeling, time to get ready, especially when you see President Obama accelerating his campaigning for the general election.
But, Wolf, if you're Speaker Gingrich, you will also have advisers say, you could now win in Indiana. You could now win the West Virginia primary. You, not Santorum, could win in Texas. You, not Santorum, could still in Arkansas. You can still get several hundred more delegates if you stay in this race and have a bigger role at the convention.
So there will be countervailing pressures on Speaker Gingrich. Some from those saying, please get out, it's over. Others saying, you now have an opportunity not to take Governor Romney out, not to defeat him, but to be more of a factor in the race and to try to change the tone and the tenor of the conversation. Which choice will the speaker make? He's going to answer that question as soon as somebody gets in front of him.
You see the Santorum family filling in right now.
BLITZER: All right. Yes, here the family is coming in. Senator Santorum is there. You know, they're getting ready to address all of us. This is an historic moment, so let's listen in.
RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you very much. It's always an honor to be here in this beautiful town of Gettysburg. Such an historic town.
First and foremost, I just want to thank everybody for the outpouring of prayers over the past weekend. We had a -- a -- a difficult weekend. We -- Good Friday was a little bit of a passion for us, with -- a passion play for us with our daughter Bella who is (inaudible) getting, unfortunately, very sick. We ended up in the hospital all weekend.
But I'm here to -- just to report, to start out things, that she is a fighter and she is doing exceptionally well and is back with us and the family. And we are looking forward to spending a lot of great time with her.
But it did cause us to think and as the role that we have as parents in her life and with the rest of our family, and this was a time for prayer and thought over this past weekend, just like it was, frankly, when we decided to get into this race.
SANTORUM: Karen and I and the kids sat at the kitchen table and talked about our hopes and fears and our concerns. And we were very concerned about our role as being the best parents we possibly could to our children and making sure that they had a country that was -- well, where the American dream was still possible.
And I think a lot of -- a lot of concerns that we had, that Karen and I had, in particular, for our family, was that, with what was going on in Washington, D.C., and all of the -- the problems that you've heard me talk about on the campaign trail, that that American dream was slipping not just from the hands of average Americans but for all Americans that that dream was slipping away, and that we had to, as good parents, to go out and do what we could to take on that responsibility for our children and for children across this country.
And so we started out almost a year ago now in Somerset, Pennsylvania. And I told, well, my story, our story, of our family and my grandfather, who came to this country and worked in the coal mines and my father who served our country in World War II, and throughout the course of this campaign, talked about my stories and the stories of our families.
But after a while it became less about my stories and more about -- what kept us going were your stories, the stories of people across America that we had the privilege of getting a chance to know and to -- to interact with.
You know, when you -- when you travel around -- and one such story was a guy named Chuck who had a pickup truck and -- and joined our team and drove us around in his Dodge Ram pickup truck for months on end and did so as a volunteer to -- because he believed. He believed that we provided the best opportunity to turn this country around.
And I met a lot of folks in Iowa that I'll never forget, folks like Sam Clovis, who is a talk show host.
And I'll never forget this fighter pilot, a man of very strong convictions, welling up and tearing up about what was going on with our country and particularly with our national security and laying out not a thee-legged stool of Ronald Reagan but a four-legged stool, with the Constitution being one of those vitally important legs that we had forgotten about; people like Wendy Jensen, who was our best volunteer, 5,000 phone calls.
And just a few days before the primary, she, because she was someone who was dealing with a disability, dealing with an illness, she passed away shortly before the -- the caucus, but was a -- was someone that I remembered her passion for the least of us, those who are on the margins of society, as many would have looked at her.
Folks, even today, as -- because of our daughter Bella, who come to -- came to our rallies, one after another, in wheelchairs, bringing their special needs children and holding signs up of children saying, "I'm for Bella's dad" -- just a -- a beautiful idea of, again, not my story but their stories was what really fuelled our campaign and gave us the -- the energy, at a time when, over and over again, we were told, "Forget it, you can't win."
We were winning. We were winning in a very different way because we were touching hearts. We were raising issues that, well, frankly, a lot of people didn't want to have raised.
SANTORUM: Our best phone call after Iowa was a young man who came to our first event in Oklahoma, in a wheelchair, named Nathaniel, who had spina bifida and wanted someone who spoke about people, again, that are overlooked by society or don't seem to be as valuable as others in society; folks like the Duggars, who -- the Duggar family, who traveled around with us in their bus and gave their time and energy because, again, they believed in the basic importance of having strong families as part of a strong country that we can't have a strong economy, as you've heard me say over and over again, without strong families and a strong moral fiber that makes us the moral enterprise that is America. Even fun things like the sweater vest. Amazing thing that sweater vest.
It happened on a night I was doing an event for Mike Huckabee in Des Moines and showed up and everybody was in suits and ties and I showed up in a sweater vest. And it turned out I gave a pretty good speech that night and all of the sudden the Twitterverse went wild saying, "It must be the sweater vest." And from that point on, the sweater vest became the -- the official wardrobe of the -- of the Santorum campaign. And the cool thing was we -- obviously we have a -- a -- a big part of our campaign is the manufacturing base of the economy.
And so we -- we sourced that sweater vest in a company that was making them here in -- in the United States and so we ended up going to that little company up in Bemidji, Minnesota, in the middle of winter. It was a beautiful day and got a chance to -- to see that little plant that had been around for almost 100 years and turned out we -- we're the best company -- the best customer that Bemidji Woolen Mills has ever had in their entire history. So it's -- it's been a -- it's been a wonderful story after story of -- of people who have come forward.
Two girls who put together a song and -- in Tulsa, Oklahoma called "Game On" who have traveled and followed us around and over a -- over a million hits on YouTube of that catchy little tune that they -- that they were inspired to give. And even today, we have folks working for us in Texas to make it a winner take all primary because they want to make sure that we have the best opportunity to -- for Texas and for conservatives to have a voice throughout the course of this primary.
It -- it has been inspiring to me the story after stories that we've been -- we've been engaged with and it turns out that it really wasn't my voice that I was out communicating, it was your voice. The voice that you gave me from the stories and experience I had. And that's what -- people say, how did this happen? How did -- how were we able to come from nowhere? It's because I was smart enough to figure out that if I understood and felt at a very deep level what you were experiencing across America and tried to be a witness to that, to try to be in a sense, an interpreter of that, that your voice could be heard and miracles could happen.
And so it did. Miracle after miracle. This race was as improbable as any race that you will ever see for president. I want to thank God for that and I want to thank all of you. Thank all of you across this country for what you have given, well hopefully not just me and our family but what you've given which is a voice to those who are in many cases voiceless. And we have tried to be a witness not just for your -- for your stories and your voice, but to provide a positive and hopeful vision, not a negative campaign.
We traveled around and did 385 townhall meetings in -- in Iowa. We weren't out there trashing anybody. We went out in our campaigns as -- from that point on and we painted a hopeful, positive vision for our country. One that was based on how we could get this country turned around, not just economically. Not just economically but reflecting the hopes and -- hopes of Americans not just the fears of Americans. The hopes of Americans as what we can do to confront the -- violent radical Islam and particularly the -- the scourge of Iran and what we could do to take on the -- the problems of a sluggish economy and a Washington that has grown so big.
SANTORUM: We put forth concrete, solid plans that, many of which, came from the people that I had an opportunity to interact with throughout the course and time of this campaign.
We did focus a lot, yes, on the families and on the dignity of human life and on the moral enterprise that is America. And I know Joe Klein'll be upset about this, but one of my favorite articles was the one that he wrote where his headline was, "Rick Santorum's Inconvenient Truths," and talked about things that maybe we should talk about a little bit more but somehow get shoved aside in the public discourse.
We talked about how we were going to build a great country from the bottom up and we carried around our copy of the Constitution. And of course it was that Constitution that got the tea party folks excited, legitimately so, about the operator's manual of America being discarded by those in Washington.
And I think what I tried to bring to the battle was what Abraham Lincoln brought to this battlefield back in 1863, in November 19th, when he talk about this country being conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
He was quoting, of course, the Declaration of Independence, conceived in that declaration. And we talked about that declaration as the heart of American exceptionalism, as to who we are, because we will never be a country that can go forward as a great and powerful country again unless we remember who we are and what makes us Americans.
That's what our campaign was about: about what made us Americans, how we built this country from the bottom up and how, if we are going to be successful in the future, how we must believe in ourselves and believe in that ability to go forward and do the same thing.
Against all odds, we won 11 states. Millions of voters. Millions of votes. We won more counties than all the other people in this race combined.
We were able to spread that message far and wide across this country, and what we found is that, while, we found that support, I found a deeper love for this country. Every state I went to -- and those of you who followed me around, I would say, "I really love this state." It was a love affair for me going from state to state and seeing the differences, but seeing the wonderful, wonderful people of this country who care deeply about where this country is going in the future, who care deeply about those who are out there paddling alone, who are feeling left behind, and in some respects feeling hopeless and want to do something.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, we -- we made a decision to get into this race at our kitchen table and against all the odds. And we made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over, for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are not done fighting.
We are going to continue to fight for those voices. We're going to continue to fight for the Americans who stood up and gave us that -- that air under our wings that allowed us to accomplish things that no political expert would have ever expected. There's a lot of greatness, a lot of greatness in this country, and we just need leaders who believe in that, who are willing to give voice to that, who are willing to raise us up instead of trying to provide for us and do for us what we can better do for ourselves.
SANTORUM: That's the message that -- that came to me and it's one that I feel very, very good about continuing to talk to Americans about. I walked out after the Iowa Caucus victory and, "Game on." I know a lot of folks are going to write, maybe those even at the White House, "Game over." But this game is a long, long, long way from over.
We are going to continue to go out there and fight to make sure that we defeat President Barack Obama, that we win the House back, and that we take the United States Senate, and we stand for the values that make us Americans, that make us the greatest country in the history of the world, that shining city on the hill, to be a beacon for everybody for freedom around the world.
Thank you all very much. God bless you.
(APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: All right, there he is Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator announcing he's suspending his presidential campaign. It's over for me, he said, but he says he will continue the struggle.
Clearly, he's going to try to rally support for Mitt Romney who now for all practical purposes will face President Barack Obama for the White House in November.
There you saw Senator Santorum speaking eloquently. Took him about 12 minutes or so to get to the substance, to get to the point he was trying to make that he was suspending the campaign.
The reason they use the word suspend is technically the campaign can still go out there and raise money in order to pay back debts to make sure that he won't leave with my personal debts. But the suspension effectively means it's over.
And he actually used those words, it's over for me. John King has been watching what's going on. John, this is a sad moment for Rick Santorum, but it sounded to me like he's clearly looking ahead. And a lot of folks are going to speculate, you know what? There's always 2016.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And there's only the question. He was asked recently, would you consider being Mitt Romney's running mate? Unlikely given the personal criticism Governor Romney would pick Senator Santorum.
But there's no question, Wolf, on what you just heard. He plans on being an immediate impact player still in the conservative movement and the Republican Party. They're not often the exact thing, the movement and the party. However, if you remember, what has been the defining question in this whole Republican primary contest? Who would emerge as the conservative challenger, the principal challenger to the frontrunner Mitt Romney.
Well, if you look at the map, it was Rick Santorum. There was the Herman Cain movement. There was the Rick Perry movement, Newt Gingrich won South Carolina and maybe it would be Newt Gingrich.
But look at the map. This is Santorum and what does it tell you? It tells you number one, he went at 1.1 percent in the polls in Iowa, 1 percent in the polls to actually winning the Iowa caucuses just barely over Mitt Romney.
Remember on that caucus night, we thought Romney was the winner. But then he went on to prove himself, largely in the Midwest, somewhat down here in the south. What do you learn from this?
You learn number one about Santorum's tenacity, Wolf. He was not the best funded candidate. He did not have the biggest staff, the most experienced staff, but he had personal tenacity and he then won Evangelical voters, Tea Party voters.
He built a campaign largely from his hard work. What else does it tell you, it tells you a bit about Governor Romney's weaknesses and solves the challenges and some of the help Governor Romney hopes to get now from Senator Santorum in healing the wounds.
Senator Santorum talked about the voice he was trying to represent in his campaign. One of his voice, one of his messages was that Mitt Romney could not win a general election. That Mitt Romney was not conservative enough to get these voters down here in the south, to get these Tea Party voters and rural working class voters up here to vote Republican.
Well, now Governor Romney is going to need his help to go out to this part of the country and say that was all politic, trust me, Mitt Romney is better than President Obama. That is what the Romney campaign will be expecting.
It will be interesting to watch if there are frictions and tensions, any conflict between Rick Santorum's effort to keep active and keep viable for his own political future, Wolf, with the challenge facing Governor Romney, which is to unite the Republican Party and now to take the challenge against President Obama.
BLITZER: Yes, and there's no doubt at least in my mind, John, that if he had stayed in the race and lost in his home state of Pennsylvania, his own political future would have been in deep, deep trouble.
Now he emerges elegantly. He emerges with a vision. I don't think there's any great admiration or love between Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, but no doubt, Rick Santorum will work to a certain degree to try to help Mitt Romney.
Right now, Jessica -- Dana Bash is standing by. Dana, you're also getting some more information on this decision, a very historic decision by Rick Santorum today to effectively end his campaign?
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We're just talking to a source close to Rick Santorum who said that he really actually finally made this decision last night.
But it was as you deter from the senator after discussions throughout the weekend with his family and of course, with his senior aides. And in terms of the raw map what I'm told by this Santorum source is that three things had to happen for him to really find a narrow path to keep going.
One is, they had to try to make the contest in Texas. They were trying to persuade Texas Republicans to make that winner-take all. Of course, Texas is a hugely delegate-rich state. That did not happen.
The Texas primary was going to be proportional. So if he won, which it looked like he would possibly do, he still wouldn't get all of those delegates. Second, of course, most immediately is the state of Pennsylvania.
They weren't entirely sure he was going to win his own home state. And then third, the fact of the matter is that Newt Gingrich still was siphoning off some conservative votes in these contests.
Despite efforts of conservative leaders who backed Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich certainly racheted down his campaign big time, but he was still taking, you know, delegates here, delegates there.
That was making it very, very difficult for Rick Santorum to continue. Those are the ultimate reasons math wise that he decided to step aside today.
BLITZER: Dana, we just got a statement from the Romney campaign, a statement from Mitt Romney personally. Let me read it to our viewers. Senator Santorum is an able and worthy competitor and I congratulate him on the campaign he ran.
He has proven himself to be an important voice in our party and in our nation. We both recognize what is most important is putting the failures of the last three years behind us and setting America back on the path to prosperity.
A short statement from Mitt Romney congratulating Senator Santorum on his campaign run, but clearly Mitt Romney, very, very relieved. I'm sure his campaign very relieved that it's over right now.
That Mitt Romney will be the Republican presidential nominee. They're going to through the motions. There will be some more primaries, some technical issues before the Republican Convention at the end of August in Tampa.
But Mitt Romney now is all set to be President Obama's challenger going into the November election. Jessica Yellin is our chief White House correspondent. Jessica, any reaction yet from the Obama campaign or from the White House? JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No reaction, Wolf. And I'm not surprised because, as you know, they haven't gone after individual candidates that frequently. But, you know, the campaign itself has already singled in on Mitt Romney.
What this respectively does is that it allows them to target Mitt Romney and to fundraise often because recently, the campaign has been trying to fundraise more aggressively.
So now they will target Mitt Romney one-on-one and I should point out, Wolf. That while much of the media's attention has been focused on the campaign going on, on the Republican side, the Obama campaign has spent more than $100 million since they first launched last April on building a campaign across this country.
So they have been in campaign mode for quite some time and they will now no doubt ratchet that up. I would expect to see the president continue to be on the road as he is today. He is in Florida at three fundraisers. He just wrapped one up at some of the most wealthy parts of that state.
We're going to see him attend an event in Boca Raton now, pushing for the "Buffet Rule," which you and I have discussed before, calling for an increased tax on millionaire, which is a key component of his campaign message.
That he's fighting for, the middle class as he puts it. So he's increasingly in campaign mode as he goes back and forth between the trail and the White House.
And this gives him the opportunity to increasingly hit Mitt Romney and take the campaign directly to who he now can openly say will be his challenger in the general election -- Wolf.
BLITZER: It's going to be a fierce, fierce battle over the next seven months between now and November, between Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama.
We have a lot more to dissect and digest. Our coverage, a historic day as this presidential contest gets ready for a new chapter. Our coverage continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANTORUM: We made a decision getting this race at our kitchen table against all the odds. We made a decision of the weekend that while this president race for us is over, for me and we will suspend our campaign effective today.
We are not done fighting. We are going to continue to fight for those voices. We are going to fight for the Americans who stood up and gave us that air under our wing that allowed us to accomplish things that no political expert ever would have expected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: He came seemingly out of nowhere to actually win the Iowa caucus. Narrowly, but he did win the Iowa caucuses. And he's done well since emerging as the main challenger to Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination.
But today, Rick Santorum ends it all suspending, a technical term, but effectively ending his race for the White House. Jim Acosta is on the scene for us in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that's where Senator Santorum made his dramatic announcement only a few moments ago.
You were in the room, Jim, when Senator Santorum made that announcement. Give us a little flavor of what was going on?
Unfortunately I think we're having a little trouble with Jim Acosta. We'll get back to Jim in a moment. Dana Bash is also standing by. He's got some information on this decision that last night over the dinner table with his wife and family.
You could see how sad they were, their faces behind him. You could see their sadness in their look. But you know what, her husband, their father, he did remarkably well.
They have no reason to be ashamed by any means. He came out of nowhere and he almost managed to get it. Not close enough, though.
BASH: That's right. And actually you pointed out something important that we should talk about. We do remember this occasionally in the political roll that politicians are people, too.
I have seen this family, this very large family, all of his older kids out on the campaign trail with Rick Santorum day in and day out. They suspended their lives, their young lives effectively to be out with their father to help them, to sort of humanize him, which we often see from politicians' families.
He have beaten up for some of the things he said, making him appear to be anti-woman. His wife was out there say no, no, that's not the case. So the whole family, again, even when they have had this very sick little 3-year-old girl, Bella, they have been out there and fighting for this.
This is definitely a letdown for any political family, but particularly this one. There's no question about it. While I'm talking to you, Wolf, I just want to mention, there are two other Republican candidates still in the race technically besides Mitt Romney and they are Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.
Ron Paul, I don't think this will come to any surprise. Anybody covering and watching politics, Ron Paul is not going to do anything different. He's not going to suspend his campaign.
I just got an e-mail from his campaign manager saying that they're going to put a release to that effect shortly. Ron Paul, you remember back four years ago, he was running four years ago and he didn't really ever end his campaign. But about this time, he is going to take it to the convention. Unclear at this point how much of an impact that's going to make.
BLITZER: Yes, I think you're right for all practical purposes, the general election campaign begins today between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.
Jim Acosta, I think we've re-established our contact with you. You were inside the room when Senator Santorum was there with his family. He made that dramatic announcement. Spoke for about 15 minutes or so. Give us a little flavor of what was going on.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I can tell you this was a vintage Rick Santorum speech. He, of course, did not use a teleprompter. He was speaking sort of ad lib. It was a very emotional speech.
I mean, one thing that I think a lot of the supporters can take away from this campaign is that this presidential candidate connected with families, with children who have disabilities.
He talked about this at length during this announcement and you could by his side his wife, Karen, who has been, you know, caught up with tears from time to time during this campaign. Her eyes welled up when he was talking about that.
This is clearly an issue that is near and dear to this family. He also gave some shout outs, some appropriate shout outs to various aspects of his campaign. He talked about the chuck truck. That was referring to a gentleman, a Rick Santorum supporter who drove him around in a pickup truck across the state of Iowa as he was going across that state. He didn't have a big flashy campaign bus like some of the other candidates.
He also talked about the sweater vest. Rick Santorum sort of the Richard Cunningham of this GOP race. He wore that sweater vest. It became very popular at certain point in this campaign when he would pull off an upset over Mitt Romney.
People would be talking about fearing the vest, fear the sweater vest. There was also a campaign song that two young lady supporters of his came up with called game on, referring to that statement.
Those two words that have Rick Santorum uttered at the end of the Iowa caucuses when he said to his supporters game on in that very surprising finish he had in the Iowa caucuses. That was an interesting thing to watch.
Wolf, but I will tell you, perhaps the most notable thing that came out of this speech. This is something that a lot of people in Washington tend to focus on. Perhaps it doesn't mean a great deal once this thing moves forward, but he did not mention Mitt Romney once during this speech.
He did not talk about getting behind Mitt Romney. He did not talk about endorsing Mitt Romney. He did talk about trying to get out and defeat Barack Obama in the fall campaign. But this was not a full throated endorsement of Mitt Romney.
And I think that goes to some of the lingering bad blood. There were times you could tell Rick Santorum felt unfairly beat up. His campaign manager came out after the speech was over and said Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have set a future date at some point where they will get together and perhaps hammer out some of these things.
I shouted out a question afterwards saying are you getting behind Mitt Romney and he didn't respond to the question, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes, he didn't want to take any questions. He's emerging from that event over there. Let's go to Joe Johns. He's covering Mitt Romney.
Joe Johns is joining us right now. A short statement released by Mitt Romney, but as Jim Acosta just point out, Santorum didn't even mention Mitt Romney by name.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: There are a lot of bad blood between these candidates and you know that, Wolf. You can make the argument perhaps that this is one of the reasons why Santorum stayed in the campaign so long, because of the attack ads.
Because of the ads that he deemed somewhat personal going after Rick Santorum. So the statement that came out from Mitt Romney. If you look at it, basically calling Santorum and an able and worthy competitor.
Congratulating him on the campaign he ran recognizing that he's proven himself to be an important voice in the party nation recognizing that what's most important is putting the failures of the last three years behind them and setting America on the path to prosperity.
So this is clearly an attempt to try to heal the wounds, if you will. And just over the past two or three weeks, I think you've seen how Romney and his campaign is trying to sort of advance and retreat.
At the same time not trying to go too far in any one direction because the question was when Santorum was going to get out of the race. The most interesting thing we saw was when Santorum's daughter, Bella got sick and had to go back to the hospital.
The Romney campaign pulling back on attack ads that they had purchased until, you know, they found out what was going on with the child. So there's obviously going to be an attempt here to try to heal the wounds and get on the business about running against President Obama. Back to you, Wolf.
BLITZER: No love lost between these two men, at least for now. But you know what, this is politics. Joe, stand by. We'll continue our special coverage right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Senator Santorum today ending his quest for the Republican presidential nomination. John King has been watching this together with all of us. A historic day as I've been pointing out, John. It sets the stage. Romney now has the Republican nomination for all practical purposes in the bag.
KING: A couple quick footnotes to make. We changed from this map, Wolf, the Republican race to this map, which is the electoral matchup. I want to note a very significant statement from the Republican National Committee Chairman, Reince Priebus.
Many Americans probably don't know who is. He just issued a statement calling Santorum's decision commendable. Saying he's putting party and defeating President Obama first ahead of his personal ambition.
You might say that's good of a message to Speaker Gingrich who still remains in the Republican race. The Republican establishment less concerned about Congressman Ron Paul, but calling Santorum's decision commendable does send a message from the Republican National headquarters to the Gingrich campaign.
This is the map, blue states won by Obama in 2008. Just about every campaign or strategist will tell you they see about a dozen battlegrounds this fall. And I'm going to go through some of them will be pretty easy to change back.
You come here, here and here. I just take a dozen states that Obama carried, what do you get? You start roughly with the Democrats about 206, 207. It takes 270 to win. Republicans, about 180, just about everybody out there, even the Obama campaign, they'll contest Indiana but they believe Indiana is going to go red.
A lot of conversations about Virginia and North Carolina, two states Barack Obama put back in a Democratic poll. For the sake of argument say North Carolina goes Republican. This is a hypothetical.
Republicans are confident about Colorado. The Obama campaign isn't giving it up. The Republicans are confident about Florida. It will be a huge battleground states. I'm going to say for the sake of argument that until he proves otherwise, we'll give Pennsylvania back to the Democrats.
Now look at this, what do you have? 244, 226, Nevada, highest unemployment rate, but Republicans have a problem with the Latinos in that community. So say Obama keeps that one.
Let's say, for the sake of this hypothetically holds New Mexico as well. What do you get now, 244, 237. So despite what you see now, national polls showing President Obama with a healthy double digit lead.
When you go state by state, Wolf, you get the makings of what could be a competitive election. Republicans are confident about Ohio. No Republican in modern times has not won the presidency without carrying Ohio.
Romney would have to win that. Then you see Romney within striking distance. So can he win somewhere else? Michigan, h was born there, but again, prove it would be my message there. President Obama say thinks the auto bailout will put Michigan in his column.
