Santorum Laying Groundwork for Another Presidential Run

Thinks supporting immigration reform will hurt Rubio in primaries

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who is quietly laying the groundwork for another presidential run, said Wednesday that Republican presidential hopefuls who support the federal immigration overhaul will struggle to find support among the party's primary voters in 2016.

During an interview on the Andrea Tantaros radio show, Santorum said that lawmakers like Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a lead author of the Senate bipartisan immigration bill, would suffer "consequences" for supporting the bill if they choose to run for president.

"I think that the issue of immigration and respecting the rule of law in this country is a very important thing for Republican voters across the country. The idea that there are Republicans in Washington, D.C., who are going to say, 'Well, the rule of law isn't that important, the idea of people coming into this country have done so illegally and we're going to basically treat them the same as people who came here legally,' is just not going to go over well in a Republican primary," Santorum said when asked specifically if Rubio's support for an immigration overhaul would hurt his chances in 2016. "I think there's going to be certainly consequences for folks who don't understand the importance of the respect for the rule of law that Republicans have."