Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum on
Saturday night reiterated their opposition to allowing gay and
lesbian couples to marry.
Bachmann and Santorum – along with
Ron Paul, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry – appeared at
the nationally televised Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition's eleventh
annual Fall Banquet and Presidential Candidates Forum in Des Moines,
Iowa.
The group, part of Ralph E. Reed Jr.'s
Faith and Freedom Coalition, describes itself as “a 21st
century version of the Christian Coalition.” Reed has said his
coalition is designed to act as a bridge between the tea party
movement and evangelical voters.
Not taking part in the event was former
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
In addressing the group, Bachmann
repeated her emerging theme that social conservatives don't have to
compromise on the 2012 GOP nominee, suggesting she's the most
conservative of the field. Later, she reminded the crowd of her
efforts as a Minnesota Senator to ban gay marriage in the state.
“In my home state of Minnesota when
it was extremely unpopular, I introduced the bill to define marriage
as one man and one woman. And we persisted. And even after I left
Minnesota, I worked with my successors and now Minnesota will be the
first state to have on its ballot the definition of marriage as one
man and one woman in this upcoming year. And as president of the
United States I would fully support the federal marriage amendment to
define marriage as one man and one woman.”
Santorum once again took a swipe at his
rivals – such as Texas Rep. Ron Paul – calling their positions
against marriage equality too soft.
“You'll hear everybody up here say,
well most everybody, say that they support traditional marriage and
they support a constitutional amendment to ban … gay marriage. But
you'll also hear, if you listen to the debates, people say that while
they may support a constitutional amendment, they don't support
getting involved in the states and doing something to make sure the
states don't pass either through judicial fiat or through legislation
marriage different than one man and one woman. And that is all the
difference”
“There's been one vote on the floor
of the United States Senate on the issue of the federal marriage
amendment. And I forced it when I was there. There hasn't been one
since. We lost, but we had the debate. We went for the right
solution.”
“Yet, people up here who will tell
you that they are for that. But will they push the debate. Will
they have the vote. Will they take it to the American people. And
one way you can tell how convicted they are, is will they go to the
states and fight it where the fight is. I will. I did.”