Newt Gingrich has said President Barack
Obama came out for gay marriage because he is beholden to gay
millionaires and activists.
Speaking to conservative outlet
Newsmax,
Gingrich dismissed Newsweek's The
First Gay President cover as a clever ploy.
“Contrary to Newsweek's clever
cover I think from everything we know he's heterosexual, so I don't
think he's gay,” the former GOP presidential candidate said.
On Obama's recent announcement in
support of gay marriage, Gingrich said: “Look, he adopted the
policy of his most powerful constituents. The fact is the gay
caucus, the gay millionaires, gay activists are at the heart of the
Obama system, and they had finally gotten tired of his equivocating.
So he said what they wanted him to [say].”
“This is a guy who ran for the state
Senate in favor of gay marriage, ran for the U.S. Senate against gay
marriage, ran in '08 sort of being equivocal, and this year finally
said he's for it. I think it does take the flip-flop attack away. I
don't quite see how Obama with a straight face now can say that
Romney's changed his positions since it's quite clear that in fact on
a pretty major issue Obama's changed his position.”
Gingrich warned that increasing support
for marriage equality could translate into “a real danger of
militant activists trying to in effect eliminate religious liberty.”
Former rivals Michele
Bachmann, Rick
Santorum and Rick
Perry have also knocked the president's new stance.