Herman Cain, Republican presidential
candidate, said Sunday that he should have defended a gay soldier.
Appearing on ABC's This Week,
the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza addressed the controversy
surrounding the GOP booing of a gay soldier.
At last month's televised Fox
News/Google debate, presidential candidate Rick Santorum answered a
question submitted by Stephen Hill, a gay soldier serving in Iraq.
Referring to the recent repeal of
“Don't Ask, Don't Tell,” 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 booed Hill's question, but
cheered Santorum when he called DADT
repeal a “tragic social experiment” and vowed he would reinstate
the policy, if elected president.
“In retrospect, because of the
controversy it has created and because of the different
interpretations that it could have had, yes, that probably – that
would have been appropriate,” Cain answered when asked if he should
have asked the audience to respect the soldier.
“I happen to think that maybe they
were booing the whole 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' repeal more so than
booing that soldier,” he added.
Cain's remarks come a day after
President Barack Obama chided
his GOP rivals for remaining silent during the forum.
Appearing on CBS' Face the Nation,
Arizona Senator John McCain, a supporter of “Don't Ask, Don't
Tell,” said the candidates should have spoken up.
“The fact is we should honor every
man and woman who is serving in the military and should in no way
treat them with anything but the highest regard,” McCain said. “I
would bet that every Republican on that stage did not agree with that
kind of behavior.”