Rick Santorum on Hillary Clinton: 'We’ve Taken Her On'

— -- Rick Santorum is ready for Hillary, but not in the way her supporters are.

The former Pennsylvania Republican senator turned two-time presidential candidate is in a “great place” to begin “countering a big, top-down, statist approach that Hillary Clinton has advocated,” he said in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos today.

“We’ve taken her on; on everything from moral and cultural issues on the floor of the United States Senate,” said Santorum, who spent several years in the upper chamber alongside then-Sen. Clinton.

Santorum – who wrote “It Takes a Family,” a treatise on the ills of big government, in response to Clinton’s 1996 book, “It Takes a Village” – also touted his book’s success as an indicator of his ability to defeat Clinton.

Critics are saying, “‘you know what, this breakdown of the family that Rick Santorum talked about 12 years ago is really one of the central issues in rebuilding America again,’” he told Stephanopoulos.

And according to Santorum, 57, his record on national security also sets him apart from his 2016 rivals.

“National security is key,” he said. “The ability to go up there and debate Hillary Clinton with a track record, not going into a debate with your experience as a briefing book, but real experiencing.”