Why Rick Santorum Says Electing Ted Cruz Could Lead to Polygamy

The real Ted Cruz is not the one Iowa voters are seeing, says opponent Rick Santorum, who'd like to win over the same evangelicals.

"He's not the social conservative that he's portraying himself as," Santorum toldNewsmax on Monday. The former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, who won Iowa in the last GOP presidential primary cycle, says that with a month left before the caucuses, "this is when people do their homework."

"People are going to start to say, oh wait a minute, he says he's these things but he's not."

The idea that Cruz says one thing in public and another behind closed doors is starting to gain traction, with Cruz the subject of an attack ad in Iowa from another socially conservative opponent, Mike Huckabee. His Super PAC ad, called "Two Teds," uses audio from a private fundraiser where Cruz said overturning marriage equality wasn't among his top three priorities. (Instead, Cruz said defending the Constitution on the whole made that short list.)

Santorum also mentioned an article in the Iowa Republican, headlined, "Ted Cruz: The False Prophet of Social Conservatism." Like Santorum does, Editor in Chief Craig Robinson accuses Cruz of couching his opposition to same-sex marriage with an argument about states rights.

"Cruz recently flip-flopped on the issue of marijuana legalization," warned Robinson. "Just like his answer on gay marriage, Cruz said, 'If the citizens of Colorado decide they want to go down that road, that's their prerogative. I personally don't agree with it, but that's their right.' Cruz's position is one that is easy for him to defend and frankly is rather politically expedient, but it also can get him crossways with social conservatives in a hurry."

Since the Newsmax interview, Santorum has already been on Fox News amping up the line of attack, even raising the specter of polygamy.

"Ted Cruz and Rand Paul and others have said we go after states to sign this, we won't do anything at the federal level, that means if the states want to adopt same-sex marriage fine, if they want to adopt polygamy that is fine or any other type of marriage," he said. "I don't have that opinion, most conservatives say there's a higher law people are accountable to, the natural law, the law of what is right and things that are moral and just, Abraham Lincoln said the state still have the right to do wrong."

Watch the Newsmax interview below: