EXCLUSIVE — Rick Santorum on Omnibus: Defund Syrian Refugee Program, ‘Not All Muslims are Jihadists, But All Jihadists are Muslims’

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum talked to Breitbart News exclusively before the fifth GOP primary debate.

The former Pennsylvania weighed in on the “Omnibus bill,” which provides the government spending through the next year, saying, defunding the Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States “is absolutely essential.”

“Here’s the reality, not all Muslims are jihadists, but all jihadists are Muslims,” Santorum stated. “We can’t be politically correct to the point where we ignore that reality.”

“I’m hopeful that they will include some things in there that push the President a little bit on some of these very important issues for our country,” Santorum told Breitbart News when asked what he thinks Congress will do this week regarding the deadline this week for the Omnibus bill.

I think the Syrian refugee issue is absolutely essential not to bring people in not just from Syria and Iraq, but from the other war torn countries where there is no reliable way to do background checks. First, our background checks are ridiculous to begin with from everything I’ve seen, much less the abilty to do background checks in places where ISIS and other types of radical Muslims are controlling territory. How do you expect to go to eastern Syria where ISIS is in control and do a background check? I mean it’s impossible.

He explained that anyone can lie during a background check when simply asked questions.

People can tell you whatever they want to tell you and if you have no way of verifying that, it’s not a background check. That’s why I’ve called for – not what Donald Trump has suggested, but some version of it – that says there are some areas of this country we have no verifiable way of determining whether someone is going to be a threat to this country.

Santorum will participate on Tuesday night in the early debate, hosted by CNN.