(CBS News) -- 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.

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.