Biden Touts Supporting Same-Sex Marriage Before Obama
At Thursday evening’s town hall, Democratic 2020 candidate Joe Biden touted his 2012 remarks expressing strong support for same-sex marriage, which put then-president Barack Obama in a difficult position and led to Obama’s full-throated support for gay marriage.
“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties,” Biden told NBC in May, 2012.
The former vice president remarks caused a controversy at the time since Obama had not expressed his full support for same-sex marriage, although he had said his views were “evolving.”
“You know that caused no consternation at all,” Biden quipped to an amused crowd Thursday night at CNN’s town hall focusing on LGBT issues, which was also hosted by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. The town hall was held on the eve of National Coming Out Day.
“Barack knew my position,” Biden continued. “I was going to be a good boy … unless I was asked.”
Soon after his 2012 comment, Biden apologized to Obama for speaking too soon on the issue.
“I had already made a decision that we were going to probably take this position before the election and before the convention,” Obama said at the time.
CNN’s town hall on LGBT issues featured nine Democratic presidential candidates, not including Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who cancelled campaign events after suffering a heart attack.
