Republican presidential candidate Carly
Fiorina has denied saying that Supreme Court rulings such as
Obergefell v. Hodges are “the law of the land.”
On Friday, conservative Iowa radio host
Jan Mickelson asked Fiorina to defend the remark.
“I think that is a quote from someone
else, not from me,” she said.
However in May, Fiorina, who has
recently surged in the polls, told Iowa conservative blog Caffeinated
Thoughts that the Supreme Court case challenging state bans on gay
marriage would become “the law of the land.”
“I think the Supreme Court decision
will become the law of the land, and however much I may agree or
disagree with it, I wouldn't support an amendment to reverse it,”
Fiorina said. “And I very much hope that we will come to a place
now in this nation where we can support their decision and at the
same time support people’s right to hold religious views and to
protect their right to exercise those views.”
On Friday, Fiorina called for passage
of a federal law that would protect businesses and individuals who
object to such unions on religious grounds.
Fiorina returned to the program on
Monday. When confronted with the clip, she evaded the question,
telling Mickelson that she did not recognize the audio.
“What I said, for example, was we
need to be, if that was about gay marriage, we profoundly disagree
with this, we need to invest our political capital and our leadership
now in protecting religious liberty all across this nation, which
means every state needs to enact a religious freedom protection act,
as we have a national act. And it also reminds us how important it
is who's on the Supreme Court. So, let’s focus our energies on
making sure we have the right nominees and the right protections and
liberties,” Fiorina
said.