Exclusive: Santorum Slams Cruz for 'Promoting Himself,' Working for 'Own Personal Aggrandizement

GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum had strong words for Iowa frontrunner Ted Cruz Tuesday, defending a controversial ad he released accusing the Texas senator of working for his own "personal aggrandizement."

In his remarks, Santorum further criticized Cruz, grouping him with Trump as a "divisive figure" and suggesting he was someone with "literally no experience in national security."

Santorum was responding to questions from TheBlaze about his ad entitled "fairytale" which contained clips of Cruz reading the children's classic "Green Eggs and Ham" from the Senate floor during an hours-long speech against Obamacare.

That speech "is emblematic of someone who is out promoting himself as opposed actually accomplishing something for the conservative cause that is positive," Santorum said.

Despite the fact that Cruz's reading of the children's book was during a filibuster in an effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Santorum said it was fair game for criticism because the filibuster strategy ultimately failed.

"He failed," said Santorum, speaking of Cruz. "It was a failure. It was a poor strategy that failed."

Santorum went on to so say that the Senate's repeal of Obama's hallmark law passed without the help of Cruz, but instead was pushed through as a team effort.

"He [Cruz] had nothing to do with it because it was a team effort," continued Santorum. "We had someone going out and doing something that was for his own personal aggrandizement."

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