Rick Santorum denies using 'black people' in welfare remarks

theGRIO REPORT - Rick Santorum is denying saying he would not 'make black people's lives better by giving them other people's money,' saying 'black people' is not a term he uses...

joyannreid

Jan 5, 2012

Rick Santorum is denying saying he would not “make black people’s lives better by giving them other people’s money,” saying “black people” is not a term he uses.

He prefers “African-American.”

In an appearance on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor, Santorum said his words — which were caught on tape by a CBS News crew — were the result of a “blurred word.”

From the Huffington Post

“I looked at that, and I didn’t say that,” Santorum told O’Reilly. “If you look at it, what I started to say is a word and then sort of changed and it sort of — blah — came out. And people said I said ‘black.’ I didn’t.”

Santorum went on to say that he doesn’t use the term “black” very often, and that he prefers the term “African-American.” He also touted his work with historically black colleges, telling O’Reilly:

“I can tell you as someone who did more work for historically black colleges, I used to have — every year, I used to bring all the historically black colleges into Washington, DC to try to help them, because they get very little federal money through the bureaucracy, and so I help to try to introduce them to people in the Department of Education so they could have more resources.”

Santorum’s previous explanations for the remark included saying he may have been responding to a question about the movie Waiting for Superman, and that he has good relationships with former RNC chairman Michael Steele and former congressman J.C. Watts, both of whom are African-American.

The tape of Santorum’s remarks on Monday, before a crowd of Iowa voters, drew sharp rebukes, including from the president of the National Urban League. On the tape, Santorum can clearly heard saying “I would not make bla— people’s lives better by giving them other people’s money.” If the intended, “blurred” word wasn’t “black,” it’s not clear what it could be.

So far, Santorum’s campaign has not responded to theGrio’s requests for comment.