President Obama lied about his faith-based opposition to gay marriage during the 2008 presidential campaign and during his first term in office, according to his senior campaign adviser David Axelrod’s new book. But it turns out that Obama lied about his stance on the issue throughout his entire national political career.
“What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman,” Obama said in a 2004 Illinois U.S. Senate debate with Republican opponent Alan Keyes. “But what I also believe is that we have an obligation to make sure that gays and lesbians have the rights of citizenship that afford them visitations to hospitals, that allow them to transfer property between partners….”
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“What I believe in my faith is that a man and a woman, when they get married, are performing something before God and it’s not simply the two persons who are meeting,” Obama said. “But that doesn’t mean that that necessarily translates into a position on public policy or with respect to civil unions.”
Obama’s 2004 answer was almost identical to his answer during the 2008 presidential campaign.
“I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. For me as a Christian, it’s also a sacred union. God’s in the mix,” Obama said in a CNN candidate interview in which he also opposed a constitutional amendment defining marriage in Christian terms.
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Obama later announced that he “evolved” on the issue during the 2012 presidential campaign.
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