Rick Santorum

Santorum Delivers Emotional CPAC Speech After Family Tragedy

Benjy Sarlin | March 15, 2013, 12:24PM

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum gestures as he speaks at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., Friday, March 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Rick Santorum delivered an emotional defense of social and economic conservatism on Friday, holding back tears as he repeatedly referenced the death of his young nephew just the day before.

"Yesterday he was not the one in pain," Santorum said, describing the "surreal" scene at the hospital. "Medicines were effectively blocking all his physical pain -- we were the ones in pain." The circumstances of Santorum's newphew's death were not immediately available and the former Senator did not go into detail.

He employed this pain metaphor throughout the speech, attacking popular culture and progressive economic policy as an empty effort to dull national suffering.

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