Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman and Gary
Johnson have condemned the booing of a gay soldier during Thursday
night's GOP presidential debate.
The three presidential hopefuls shared
the stage during the televised Fox News/Google debate, where none of
the candidates spoke out when a gay soldier serving in Iraq was booed
by the audience.
Referring to the recent repeal of
“Don't Ask, Don't Tell,” Stephen Hill, dressed in an Army
t-shirt, asked via a YouTube clip: “Do you intend to circumvent the
progress that has been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the
military?”
The audience cheered when Rick Santorum
called DADT
repeal a “tragic social experiment” and vowed to reinstate the
policy, if elected president.
Santorum addressed the booing during a
Fox News segment.
“I condemn the people who booed that
soldier. That soldier is serving our country. I thank him for our
service to our country. I'm sure he's doing an excellent job,”
Santorum said. “I have to admit I seriously did not hear those
boos. Had I heard them, I certainly would have commented on them.”
“Had I, I would have said, 'Don't do
that. This man is serving our country. And we are to thank him for
his service.'”
Johnson, the former governor of New
Mexico, told MSNBC: “If I have one regret from last evening, it's
that I didn't stand up and say, you know, you're booing a U.S.
serviceman who is denied being able to express his sexual preference.
There's something very wrong with that.”
And in comments to
TalkingPointsMemo.com,
Huntsman, the former governor of Utah, agreed.
“It was unfortunate,” Huntsman
said. “You know, we're all Americans and the fact that he is an
American who put on the uniform says something good about him. In my
opinion, when you have booing this is not indicative of Republicans.
This is not the Republican Party that I belong to.”
(Related: Obama
says GOP booing of gay soldier “not who we are.”)