Rick Perry on Wednesday reiterated his
position that if elected president he would reinstate “Don't Ask,
Don't Tell,” the recently ended policy that for 18 years banned gay
and bisexual service members from serving openly.
During an appearance on CNN's Situation
Room, host Wolf Blitzer asked Perry if he would reinstate the
ban.
“Absolutely,” Perry replied. “I
think 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' worked fine.”
He went on to accuse President Barack
Obama of using the military for his political gain.
“[T]his president to use the
military, and he's used the military twice, Wolf, and both times I
think to get support from his base. But particularly on the gays in
the military issue, he made the decision that he was going to respond
to his base by pushing through and pushing through Congress when he
had the votes to allow for individuals to openly serve as gay members
of the military. I didn't agree with that. We have two wars going
on, the unit cohesiveness, the problems that that can cause, those
are real.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.
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Perry also said he believes religious
organizations should be free to “choose” to discriminate against
gay people.
(Related: Rick
Perry links faith to anti-gay sentiment in new ad.)