CNN's Rick Santorum excuses Trump’s blatant lying to Americans: ‘It’s the president’s shtick’

CNN's John Berman on Tuesday confronted former Republican Senator Rick Santorum with a list of blatant, easily disprovable lies that President Donald Trump had told this week alone -- and Santorum brushed them off with a shrug.

During a panel discussion, Berman pointed out that Trump admitted he had no proof to back up his claim that Middle Eastern men were part of the migrant caravan walking through Mexico; that Trump blatantly fabricated the number of jobs created by arms sales to Saudi Arabia; and that he concocted a fantasy middle-class tax cut proposal entirely out of thin air.

Given all these demonstrable falsehoods, Berman asked Santorum if it was helpful to Republicans to have a president who repeatedly tells lies to the American public.

"No," Santorum admitted. "But it's sort of the president's schtick. He sort of uses hyperbole a lot and he exaggerates things. He tries to take credit for things that aren't necessarily going to happen."

Despite this, Santorum said that the president's efforts to gin up fear among his base by using bogus facts was successful because "the unsettling caravan and the unsettling mobs around Kavanaugh have really struck a chord with moderates and independents."

Watch the video below.