Rick Santorum: Racially-motivated GOP voters ‘bristle’ when you call them racists

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum on Sunday complained that voters in the Republican Party were "bristling" at the suggestion that they are racist.

During a panel discussion on CNN about the midterm elections, former Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI) lamented that President Donald Trump is "mining" a "deep thread" of hatred within his party.

"That's not the America that Democrats want to build," Granholm insisted.

Santorum, however, argued that GOP voters do not like being told they are motivated by fear, hatred and racism.

"The reason I think Republicans are doing as well as they are -- I think people are rejecting this idea that because the president brings up immigration or because he brings up other issues that the left immediately says, 'Oh, he a racist or he's a bigot,'" the former senator complained.

According to Santorum, Republican voters are "bristling" at suggestions that they allow racist campaign messages to energize turnout.

"That's why you see enthusiasm is high," he opined. "You have the fundamentals that are very strong for the president. He's doing things that are popular: the tax cut, cutting the regulations, growing this economy, fighting on trade, blue collar workers having their wages go up."

Watch the video below from CNN.