During a Tuesday press conference in Gettysburg, Pa., Rick Santorum suspended his bid for the White House.
“Miracle after miracle, this race was as improbable as any race that you will ever see for president,” Santorum said to the room. “And I want to thank God for that.”
Even before the announcement, Mitt Romney — who Santorum didn’t mention in his speech — was seen as the all-but-certain GOP nominee.
The former Pennsylvania senator’s decision may have come, in part, due to a recent Public Policy Polling survey that had Santorum trailing Romney in his home state of Pennsylania 42 percent to 37 percent. Romney also swept the last round of primaries in Washington D.C., Maryland and Wisconsin.
Santorum just today re-joined the campaign after tending to his 3-year-old daughter who had been sick. Bella Santorum suffers from a genetic disorder known as Trisomy 18.
Fox News quoted a statement from Santorum and his wife Karen:
“We “are happy to announce that their daughter Bella has been discharged from the hospital and returned home earlier Monday evening,” said Hogan Gidley, the campaign’s national communications director. “The Santorums are truly overwhelmed by the prayers and support they’ve received.””
The audience in attendance for the conference were informed Santorum would not be taking questions after his remarks. Santorum began the conference by discussing the health of his three-year-old daughter Bella.”I want to thank everybody for the outpouring of prayers over the past weekend. We had a difficult weekend. Good Friday was a little bit of a passion play for us with our daughter Bella. She is a fighter, and she’s doing exceptionally well,” Santorum said about Bella.”It did cause us to think as the role we have as parents in her life and with the rest of our family. This was a time for prayer and thought. Karen and I and the kids sat at the kitchen table and talked about our hopes and fears and concerns. 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 as good parents had to go out there and do what we could to take on that responsibility for our children and for children across this country.”
While speaking, Santorum discussed getting inspiration at campaign stops from his followers. He discussed support from some people who he said packed up their pickup truck and followed his campaign.
Santorum credited the Duggar Family as well as two girls who wrote a campaign song for him with inspiring him and keeping him going.
“People say how did this happen? How were we able to come from nowhere?,” Santorum said. “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, in a sense, to be an interpreter of that, that your voice could be heard and miracles could happen. And so it did.”
Santorum also noted his campaign wasn’t marked by negativity. “We weren’t out there trashing anybody…we painted a hopeful, positive vision for our country,” he said. Santorum also said his campaign aimed to reflect the “hopes” of Americans and not just the fears. Before closing, Santorum said he is “not done fighting…There’s a lot of greatness in this country. 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 U.S. Senate and that we stand for the values that make us Americans.” On Wednesday, April 4, the Morning Joe panel wondered what moves Santorum’s campaign would make after the April 3 loss. Watch that video below:
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