Trump apologist Rick Santorum attempted the old "I'm rubber, you're glue" defense to cover for Trump's race baiting on CNN's State of the Union this Sunday. This is the network that Meghan McCain wants us to believe is a "mouthpiece for Democrats."

Sorry Meghan, but not as long as they continue to employ liars like Santorum to muddy up the works in segments like this one.

While discussing the game being played by Trump where he says something awful and then his wife and daughter, or someone else in his administration comes behind him and attempts to clean up his remarks, former Clinton campaign adviser Karen Finney took Trump to task for the obvious race-baiting in regards to the insults hurled at LeBron James and Don Lemon:

FINNEY: And to me, I think that's how the LeBron piece sort of played out. He says something racist and despicable and he really has to stop insulting the intelligence of African-Americans, it's getting a little tiresome and really this narrative of him as a racist is only deepening. So this goes to the second point, Jake, you and I were talking about this, this goes to so much of his strategy, which is about dividing us as a country, which is about along racial lines and along ethnic lines, attacks on Muslim Americans and African-Americans, journalists and then exploiting that fear and division in ways that are helpful for him and frankly, they also--remember--help the Russians.

So how does anyone defend that? By accusing Democrats of doing exactly what Trump does on a daily basis, of course. Here's Rick Santorum's response:

SANTORUM: All I can say the Democratic Party has been doing that for decades. And you even saw it, Kamala Harris defending divisive politics [Ed. note: She didn't]. The Democratic Party has been divided along race and class in every other thing you can name. And I understand you guys don't like it. I understand –

[…]

Look, the Democratic Party has been a party that has focused on different voter groups, whether it's blacks or whether it's Hispanics, you name it, and they have tried to divide this country along those lines, along class warfare. It's been a warfare game for them. Trump is taking them at their own game. I don't like it. I didn't like it on either side but that... I can understand why they are upset. I don't like it either.

Thankfully Karen Finney and Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragan were there for a dose of reality in response:

FINNEY: Attacking the intelligence of African-Americans or calling Mexicans rapists.

BARRAGAN: That's right. The only one who's being divisive here is the president of the United States. He started on day one of the campaign. He's been going on. If you saw the rally last night in Ohio, it's been anti-immigrant again, painting them as criminals as he usually does, again attacking African-American women, African-Americans. I mean, this is his M.O. and the president is the one who has been dividing this country.

And I think that's something we should recognize and I think that is totally appropriate for you to have a candidate who's part of the heritage who going to talk about it. I did it on my campaign. I'm the daughter of immigrants. My mom had a third grade education. That is something that with some of the electorate, people love. Even Republicans, they love the story of making it, coming from nowhere and making it, going to college and becoming a success story. Telling your story is not identity politics...

FINNEY: Like LeBron.

Even Bill Kristol admitted how dangerous it is to have a president using the sort of rhetoric we hear from Trump day in and day out, but he's been happy to remain a member of a party that has used race baiting to get people to vote against their own economic interest for decades now. He's only come around to admitting how dangerous it is now that Trump has thrown away the dog whistles for blow horns.

And Mr. "Blah People" Santorum, who has been more than happy to use race baiting to appeal to Republican base voters himself's assertion that he "doesn't like" what Trump has been doing is patently absurd. Sadly, host Tapper couldn't bother to call him out for it.