The Islamic State (ISIS) does not see President Barack Obama as a threat — and, in fact, believes the commander-in-chief is its ally in some respects, Rick Santorum, a Republican presidential candidate and former senator from Pennsylvania, tells
Newsmax TV.
"ISIS listed me, the only person in the presidential race, as an enemy of ISIS and when they listed me in their publication as an enemy of ISIS, they did so because I accurately described who they are and I accurately described why we had to defeat them," Santorum said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
Watch
Newsmax TV on
DIRECTV Ch. 349,
DISH Ch. 223 and
Verizon FiOS Ch. 115. Get
Newsmax TV on your cable system –
Click Here Now
"They see that as the threat. That's the enemy. They don't see Barack Obama as an enemy. They see him in many respects, the policies that he's put forward, as an ally because the Obama policy is to contain ISIS.
"What does that mean? Allow them to keep their territory. If we allow them to keep their territory, we are giving ISIS the most powerful tool they have which is to say we have fought the great Satan of the United States, we have maintained our territorial integrity, and you must follow us."
On Sunday, Obama vowed to hunt down anyone plotting militant attacks against the U.S. and to "destroy" ISIS as he sought to reassure Americans after a deadly California shooting rampage, which has been called a terrorist act, left 14 dead.
His address to the nation came amid growing pressure from Republicans and even some Democrats for a tougher response to ISIS now that the shootings — which ISIS has claimed credit for — have raised fears among Americans about the threat of more attacks at home.
Santorum said the seizure of ISIS' Middle East strongholds is key in defeating it.
"If you want to create a problem for ISIS, you have to destroy and take back their land so the Muslim world will see them not as a legitimate voice for Islam. Just saying they aren't, that's nothing. It's propaganda," he said.
"What Muslims around the world are looking for is to whether this is the true caliphate they claim they are and the only way you can make that determination is not by going to Barack Obama and saying, 'Oh well, this Christian in the United States says they're not the legitimate caliphate. Oh, they must not be!
"That's not going to convince them. What's going to convince them is if you look at Islamic law and look at the determination as to whether the caliphate is real or not and one of the principal objectives of a caliphate is to maintain and expand their reach in the pursuit of global jihad."
Removing ISIS from the cities, towns and villages it has seized in the Middle East will strike the terror group "at their heart," Santorum told Malzberg.
"[Do that] and you have destroyed their ability to be able to recruit. That's what the president is not doing because he thinks propaganda will defeat ISIS."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.