Team Obama Rips Santorum for Criticizing Malias Trip to Mexico Aliyah Shahid - New York Daily News
go to original March 22, 2012

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum criticized President Obama for allowing teen daughter, Malia, go to Mexico despite a State Department travel warning for the country. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Team Obama is hitting back at Rick Santorum for criticizing the dad-in-chief's parenting skills.

The President's deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, said she's astonished the Republican presidential candidate would criticize Obama for allowing his teen daughter to go on a school trip to Mexico.

She argued children shouldn't be targeted on the campaign trail.

"I think that children, for candidate purposes, have always been off-limits in presidential campaigns, and really any campaign," Cutter told MSNBC on Wednesday. "I'm surprised that Rick Santorum wouldn't agree with that."

Santorum, who has seven kids of his own, criticized Obama for letting 13-year-old Malia go to Mexico, despite a recent State Department travel warning for the country.

"What I would say is that the President's actions should reflect what his administration is saying," Santorum told conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Tuesday.

"If the administration is saying that it's not safe to have people down there, then just because you can send 25 Secret Service agents doesn't mean you should do it. You should set an example. I think that's what Presidents do."

Malia, who is being accompanied by Secret Service agents, has been in Oaxaca for a school-sponsored service project.

The White House has a policy of not discussing the Obama children, but made an exception to say she was safe on Tuesday following an earthquake that rocked the area she's traveling in.

Several media outlets, including Agence France-Presse and The Huffington Post, pulled stories about Malia's trip to Mexico this week after the White House reminded them that they are not supposed to cover the children's private lives.

The State Department warning about traveling to Mexico, issued in February, did not say Americans shouldn't go there but warned "crime and violence are serious problems throughout the country and can occur anywhere."

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