Jake Tapper of ABC
Wednesday asked White House press secretary Robert Gibbs for a
reaction to recent comments from former president Bill Clinton
that he now supports marriage equality.
Full text of
the exchange is below:
Tapper:
Former president Bill Clinton recently said that he's
basically in support of same-sex marriage. "I think
it's wrong," he said, "for someone to stop
someone else from getting involved in same-sex marriage."
Has President Obama heard these comments? Does he have a
reaction? And why is Bill Clinton wrong about this issue?
Gibbs:
Well, I'm not going to get into anybody's opinion --
I'm not going to criticize anybody's opinion, least of
all a former president of the United States, on something like
this. I am not clear whether the president has seen that. I
don't know where that was from, so I don't know if the
president has seen it.
But President Obama holds a different opinion?
President Obama holds the same opinion he has earlier
today.
Which is that same-sex marriage is wrong.
He does not support it. He supports civil unions.
Why does he feel differently than President Bill
Clinton?
Because they don't agree on the issue. [
Laughter
] I've not obviously spent a lot of --
That's not really an explanation of why he feels
differently. That's another word for it.
Well, I mean, I'm happy to -- I mean, I think the president
has answered this question a number of times. I can't form
a basis for why former president Clinton -- I've obviously
not had a conversation with him on this issue, so I don't
know what -- it's hard for me to compare some of this
because I don't have the basis by which he's making
that decision.
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