During a press conference on Friday, President Obama expressed his concern for the parents of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year old boy who was shot and killed last month and whose killer has yet to be arrested. Obama said when he thinks about the boy, he thinks about his own kids, even going so far as to say that if he had a son, he would look like Trayvon.

Those comments were enough to spark the ire of Republican primary candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, who spoke out against the president in two separate radio shows on Friday.

“Is the president suggesting if it had been a white who had been shot, that would be OK because it wouldn’t look like him?” Gingrich told Sean Hannity. “That’s just nonsense. I mean, dividing this country up, it is a tragedy this young man was shot.”

Santorum spoke similarly, saying, “And then, this, it is – again, politicizing it. This is, again, not what the presidents of the United States do. What the president of the United States should do is try to bring people together, not use these types of horrible tragic individual cases to try to drive a wedge in America.”

White House senior advisor David Plouffe said yesterday that the reactions of the two politicians were uncalled for.

“I don’t think there’s very many people in America that would share that reaction,” Plouffe told CNN. “You know, this is – this Republican primary at some points has been more of a circus show, a clown show. And those two comments are really irresponsible. I would consider them reprehensible. I think the president spoke movingly about this tragedy, as a father, made it clear that there’s an investigation going on.”

Twitter users had reactions similar to Plouffe’s:

Gingrich tweeted his feelings about the president yesterday: