Trump challenged after ‘contradicting himself’ on plan to overturn same-sex marriage
Donald Trump was asked to clarify why he made comments both backing and opposing same-sex marriage – but he didn’t really make anything much clearer.
The billionaire reality TV star-turned Republican candidate has been accused of misleading voters in recent weeks – telling Fox News he’d “consider” appointing new Supreme Court justices to overturn equal marriage, but then just days later telling a lesbian TV host he’d “move forward” on LGBT rights.
George Stephanopoulos gave Trump another crack at articulating his position in an NBC interview – but the candidate only added to the knot of contradictory statements.
Stephanopoulos said: “Last Sunday, you said you would strongly consider appointing Supreme Court justices to overturning the ruling in every state – but later this week, you said [you would move forward]. How does that move things forward for gays and lesbians?”
Trump responded: “I was talking about bringing people together… appointing Justices would take a long time, frankly, because I don’t know how long it would take. I will appoint them, and we will see how they will vote.”
Asked how such a move could possibly ‘move forward’ on equality, Trump said: “We’re going to find out.
“There’s a lot of people who want to see that. But more important than anything else to me, this country is so divided right now. We have to bring it together.”
Given yet another chance to clear up his position, he added: “It has really been determined… we will see what happens. We’re going to look at judges, they’ve got to be great judges, they’ve got to be conservative judges, we’re going to see how they stand depending on what their views are.
“I would prefer that they stand against, but it depends on the judge.
“It’s very simple… we’re going to do whatever we have to do. We’re going to see what their views are, we’re going to make that decision at that time. It’s a long way off.”
It’s all very clear: if you’re a lesbian voter he will support your marriage, but if you’re an evangelical voter he’ll oppose lesbian marriage. If you ask on Fox News then he will absolutely consider it, but if you ask on NBC then he hasn’t decided whether he will decide to decide yet.
What could be less confusing than that?
