Jeb Bush reiterated his opinion on a same-sex couple’s right to marry on Sunday, going so far as to say he doesn’t believe in a constitutional right to marriage equality, an issue currently being deliberated in the Supreme Court.
Speaking during an interview with The Brody File on the Christian Broadcasting Network, Bush, whom BuzzFeed dubbed “2016’s Gay-Friendly Republican,‘ called traditional marriage ‘a sacrament.’
“To imagine how we are going to succeed in our country unless we have committed family life, a child-centered family system is hard to imagine,” he told David Brody. “So, irrespective of the Supreme Court ruling … because they are going to decide whatever they decide, I don’t know what they are going to do, we need to be stalwart supporters of traditional marriage.”
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Bush’s previous statements on marriage equality have largely emphasized his belief that it’s best left as a state’s issue, an opinion that Hillary Clinton also espoused until April when she declared same-sex couples had a constitutional right to marry.
And Bush was quick to emphasize how the president and Clinton haven’t held their current positions on marriage for long. “Four years ago, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had the same view that i just expressed to you,” Bush said. When stacked up against other GOP ’16 presidential candidates, Bush’s statements have a different shade than, say, Mike Huckabee, who said same-sex marriage will lead to the “criminalization of Christianity.” A recent NBC News/Marist poll found a growing support for marriage equality among GOP voters.
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