Herman Cain has backtracked on his
position on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
As early as last week, Cain said that
he opposed such an amendment.
Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press,
Cain told host David Gregory that if elected president he “wouldn't
seek a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, but I am pro
traditional marriage.”
The former CEO of Godfather's Pizza
also stated his opposition to such an amendment during an earlier New
Hampshire GOP debate.
Cain's stance on the issue has
previously infuriated the National Organization for Marriage (NOM),
the nation's most vociferous opponent of gay marriage, whose anti-gay
marriage pledge failed to win Cain's endorsement.
But in a videotaped interview with the
Christian Broadcasting Network's (CBS) David Brody after Cain
appeared Saturday at the Iowa Faith and Freedom's annual banquet,
Cain said he had changed his position.
“[In your Faith and Freedom speech]
you mentioned marriage as well so you're also, just so I understand,
you're for a constitutional marriage amendment as well?” Brody
asked.
“I think marriage should be protected
at the federal level also,” Cain responded. “I used to believe
that it could be just handled by the states but there's a movement
going on to basically take the teeth out of the 1996 Defense of
Marriage Act and that could cause an unraveling, so we do need some
protection at the federal level because of that and so yes I would
support legislation that would say that it's between a man and a
woman.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
Cain's remarks come after Rick
Santorum chided his rivals at the event for being too soft on their
opposition to marriage equality.
(Related: Herman
Cain slammed for claiming that being gay is a choice.)