Rick Santorum Says GOP Debate Rules 'Arbitrary'

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Sunday that the criteria for the first Republican debate this week, which will limit participation to the Top 10 GOP candidates according to recent national polls, are "arbitrary."

"These national polls are irrelevant," Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania who ran for president in 2012, said on ABC's "This Week." "I was at 1 percent in the national polls four years ago and ended up winning 11 states, four million votes, won the Iowa caucus."

Santorum is polling low nationally and is not expected to gain entry to the first Republican debate on Thursday, according to an ABC News analysis.

RNC Chair Reince Priebus responded to criticism from Santorum and others by saying he was grateful that the first two debates would include all the candidates, even if the ones polling lower would be featured in a lower-profile forum earlier in the evening.

"We're proud of the fact that everyone running is going to have an opportunity," Priebus said on "This Week" Sunday. "And the reality is, and it might be a little harsh, but you can't necessarily treat someone that's polling at 18 or 20 percent the same as someone that's polling at a half a percent or 1 percent."

But Santorum argued low national poll numbers are not indicative of who might surge at the right time and win primaries and caucuses in early-voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire. He said the Republican National Committee has erred in agreeing with television networks that national polls should determine participation.

"National polls mean nothing," he said. "It's just an arbitrary figure. And unfortunately the networks and the RNC have gone along with this irrelevant legitimacy of candidacy and then have the ability to influence who is in the top ten by the amount of coverage they get and the amount of advertising dollars."