Rick Santorum slammed Donald Trump for his comments defending North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over the torture and death of Otto Warmbier, after Kim denied knowledge of the imprisoned American student’s condition.

“He felt badly about it. I did speak to him. He felt very badly,” Trump said at a press conference from his summit with Kim in Hanoi, Vietnam. “He tells me that he didn’t know about it and I will take him at his word.”

“Those prisons are rough, and bad things happen, but I really don’t believe he knew about it,” Trump said.

Santorum was asked about Trump’s comments on CNN Thursday, and said: “this is the conundrum of Donald Trump for many of us who like his policies and don’t like a lot of the things he does and says.”

The former Pennsylvania senator made sure to praise Trump for walking away from his summit with Kim, after failing to come to an agreement on denuclearization, calling it “a wonderful moment in his presidency.”

“But this is reprehensible, what he just did,” Santorum told CNN’s John Berman. “He gave cover, as you just said, to a leader who knew very well what was going on with Otto Warmbier. I don’t understand why the president does this, I am disappointed, to say the least, that he did it.”

WATCH:

“This is reprehensible what he just did. He gave cover… to a leader who knew very well what was going on with Otto Warmbier,” @RickSantorum says about Pres. Trump saying he believes Kim Jong Un’s claim he wasn't aware of the American student’s condition https://t.co/2JAkMvsnCI pic.twitter.com/kdGjff7N7r

— CNN (@CNN) February 28, 2019

Others on Twitter was equally as disgusted:

Walking away from the summit was better than making a bad deal. It’s also the result of a poorly planned strategy.

But accepting Kim’s denial of involvement in Warmbier’s death? Detestable, and harkens back to Trump’s duplicitous acceptances of denials from other dictators. https://t.co/JvidU3AJYO

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 28, 2019

Saudi Arabian Prince: I had nothing to do with Jamal Kashoggi’s death.

Trump: Sounds credible to me.

North Korean dictator: I had nothing to do Otto Warmbier’s death.

Trump: I believe you.

Literally any woman: I was sexually assaulted.

Trump: Lol sure you were, ugly.

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) February 28, 2019

At times, I think Trump has hit the bottom of the barrel and cannot possibly go any lower, cannot possibly become more loathsome. He always proves me wrong.
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“Trump defends North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over death of Otto Warmbier” https://t.co/vUDtKEqOxG

— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) February 28, 2019

Here is what Otto Warmbier's father said in the past about his son: He was "taken hostage, kept as a prisoner for political purposes, used as a pawn and singled out for exceptionally harsh and brutal treatment by Kim Jong Un."
Today Trump sided with Kim over the Warmbier family.

— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) February 28, 2019