Santorum: Not responsible for Friess' "bad joke"

Updated at 10:39 a.m. ET

Taking a page from rival Newt Gingrich, Republican presidential hopeful and newly minted front-runner Rick Santorum on Friday slammed the media for asking about a controversial comment one of his supporters made about contraception a day earlier.

"My record stands for itself," Santorum said in an interview on "CBS This Morning" after being asked about Foster Friess' comment on MSNBC Thursday that women should hold a Bayer aspirin between their knees to use as contraception.

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Asked what he had said to Friess, Santorum said it was "a bad joke" and said he should not have to respond to questions about the comments because he did not make them.

Charlie Rose retorted that he was asking about the senator's views, not Friess' views.

"Hold on Charlie, when you quote a supporter of mine who tells a bad off-color joke and somehow I am responsible for that, that is gotcha," Santorum told host Rose.

"Nobody said you were responsible, they said how would you characterize it and what have you said to him? Not that that you were responsible. It's to understand how you differ from what this person said," Rose shot back.

Friess later apologized for the comment on in a blog post, saying that the "aspirin joke bombed as many didn't recognize it as a joke but thought it was my prescription for today's birth control practices. ... After listening to the segment tonight, I can understand how I confused people with the way I worded the joke and their taking offense is very understandable. To all those who took my joke as modern day approach I deeply apologize and seek your forgiveness."

Santorum backer Foster Friess apologizes for contraception comment
Coming up this Sunday on Face the Nation: Rick Santorum

Watch Santorum's full interview in the video player above.