Interrupted by Occupiers, Santorum Capitalizes on Chaos

Occupy protesters interrupted a Rick Santorum campaign speech in Tacoma on Monday night, but unlike previous "mic-check" shout-downs, police didn't remove or quiet the protesters, forcing Santorum to shout over them for most of his speech.

Occupy protesters interrupted a Rick Santorum campaign speech in Tacoma on Monday night, but unlike previous "mic-check" shout-downs, police didn't remove or quiet the protesters, forcing Santorum to shout over them for most of his speech. Santorum "seemed to revel in the environment, recasting his speech to tout his populist economic message and attacking protesters for being intolerant and promoting class warfare," The Wall Street Journal reports.

Protesters also scuffled with Santorum supporters, and somebody (once again) glitter-bombed the candidate afterward. But aside from arresting two for fighting, along with the glitter-bomber, police didn't stop the protesters from interrupting Santorum's speech, ABC reports. So the candidate had to improvise.

On the charge that he was a bigot, Santorum said of the protesters, "what they represent is true intolerance ... I don’t think they’re a bigot because they disagree with me,” according to the Journal. In fact, Santorum made a show of agreeing with some of what the protesters were saying as they changed "we are the 99 percent" and his supporters shouted at them to get jobs. Santorum saw the opportunity to get in a jab at his would-be opponent for president, ABC reports:

"You realize that there is a group in society that is being left behind. There's a group, about one in three Americans don't graduate from high school, and almost all of them, over three quarters of them, will end up in poverty at some point in time in this country," said Santorum. "We've got to provide an opportunity for them, instead of standing here unemployed yelling at somebody, to go out and get a job and work for a living."