During a news conference at the White
House Rose Garden, President Donald Trump ignored a question from a
reporter on whether he disagrees with a senate candidate's opposition
to LGBT rights.
The reporter asked whether Trump
disagrees with U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore's views that gay sex
should be illegal and Muslims should not be allowed to serve in
public office.
“I’m going to be meeting with Roy
sometime next week and we’re going to talk to him about a lot of
different things, but I’ll be meeting with him,” Trump
said. “He ran a very strong race. The people of Alabama – who
I like very much, and they like me very much – but they like Roy,
but we’ll be talking to them, and I can report back to then, OK?”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,
a Republican from Kentucky who appeared with the president, received
the same question but did not respond.
Moore is an outspoken opponent of LGBT
rights. As recently as 2015, he said said that homosexuality should
be illegal.
“I think homosexuality should be
illegal,” Moore
said. “Sodomy was declared illegal by the United States
Supreme Court in 1987. It said there was no right under the
constitution to enlarge the fundamental rights of homosexuals.”
More recently, Moore called on Congress
to impeach the Supreme Court justices who found in Obergefell
that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry.
(Related: Roy
Moore: Supreme Court justices who struck down gay marriage bans
should be impeached.)