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Santorum Comments Raise Ire of Gay Rights Group, Some Democrats
Aired April 22, 2003 - 13:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Republican Senator Rick Santorum getting heat from a gay rights group over comments he made during an interview with the Associated Press. Members of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay advocacy group, are so upset, they are demanding he be removed from Senate leadership. CNN's Jonathan Karl joining us now from Capitol Hill with more on all this -- hello, Jonathan.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles. Some recent developments on this. One is that now, top Democrats have joined the gay group Human Rights Campaign, in calling for Senator Santorum to step down from his leadership position. And Senator Santorum himself has issued a new statement, clarifying his remarks.
First, let's take a step back and look what caused this uproar. Yesterday, the Associated Press put out a story where they had interviewed Senator Santorum, and he made some controversial comments about the sodomy case now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
His -- in that interview with the AP that was printed yesterday, Senator Santorum said, "If the Supreme Court says you have the right to consensual gay sex within your home, then you have a right to bigamy, you have a right to polygamy, you have a right to incest, you have a right to adultery, you have a right to anything."
Now, gay groups, as well as some top Democrats up here are expressing outrage at that comment, because they believe that Senator Santorum is equating homosexuality with such things as incest and polygamy. Now, in his statement that he has just put out clarifying this, it is a written statement, Senator Santorum makes it very clear that he was talking specifically about that Supreme Court case involving that Texas law that prohibits sodomy.
And the statement says -- quote -- "I am a firm believer that all are equal under the Constitution. My comments should not be misconstrued in any way as a statement on individual lifestyles."
So Senator Santorum is saying that he is in no way doing any gay bashing here, he was simply making a legal point about a case before the Supreme Court. But I assure you, this is something that has become somewhat of a fire storm up here on Capitol Hill, even as the Congress is out on its Easter recess.
The Democratic Congressional -- the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is the committee that is in charge of the Senate races around the country, headed up by New Jersey Senator John Corzine has put out a statement saying that Santorum should resign from the Republican leadership. He is, Miles, as you know, the No. 3 Republican here in the United States Senate.
O'BRIEN: Jonathan, can't help but hearkening back to Trent Lott's situation, is this going to, do you think, end up like a Trent Lott situation?
KARL: Well, certainly hard to say at this point. Much of the Congress is away. This is, after all, Easter recess. It is certainly a fire storm up here, way too early at this point to say whether or not it will escalate to the level of that Trent Lott situation, which, of course, culminated in Trent Lott's resignation from the leadership.
O'BRIEN: All right. Jonathan Karl, thank you.
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Aired April 22, 2003 - 13:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Republican Senator Rick Santorum getting heat from a gay rights group over comments he made during an interview with the Associated Press. Members of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay advocacy group, are so upset, they are demanding he be removed from Senate leadership. CNN's Jonathan Karl joining us now from Capitol Hill with more on all this -- hello, Jonathan.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles. Some recent developments on this. One is that now, top Democrats have joined the gay group Human Rights Campaign, in calling for Senator Santorum to step down from his leadership position. And Senator Santorum himself has issued a new statement, clarifying his remarks.
First, let's take a step back and look what caused this uproar. Yesterday, the Associated Press put out a story where they had interviewed Senator Santorum, and he made some controversial comments about the sodomy case now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
His -- in that interview with the AP that was printed yesterday, Senator Santorum said, "If the Supreme Court says you have the right to consensual gay sex within your home, then you have a right to bigamy, you have a right to polygamy, you have a right to incest, you have a right to adultery, you have a right to anything."
Now, gay groups, as well as some top Democrats up here are expressing outrage at that comment, because they believe that Senator Santorum is equating homosexuality with such things as incest and polygamy. Now, in his statement that he has just put out clarifying this, it is a written statement, Senator Santorum makes it very clear that he was talking specifically about that Supreme Court case involving that Texas law that prohibits sodomy.
And the statement says -- quote -- "I am a firm believer that all are equal under the Constitution. My comments should not be misconstrued in any way as a statement on individual lifestyles."
So Senator Santorum is saying that he is in no way doing any gay bashing here, he was simply making a legal point about a case before the Supreme Court. But I assure you, this is something that has become somewhat of a fire storm up here on Capitol Hill, even as the Congress is out on its Easter recess.
The Democratic Congressional -- the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is the committee that is in charge of the Senate races around the country, headed up by New Jersey Senator John Corzine has put out a statement saying that Santorum should resign from the Republican leadership. He is, Miles, as you know, the No. 3 Republican here in the United States Senate.
O'BRIEN: Jonathan, can't help but hearkening back to Trent Lott's situation, is this going to, do you think, end up like a Trent Lott situation?
KARL: Well, certainly hard to say at this point. Much of the Congress is away. This is, after all, Easter recess. It is certainly a fire storm up here, way too early at this point to say whether or not it will escalate to the level of that Trent Lott situation, which, of course, culminated in Trent Lott's resignation from the leadership.
O'BRIEN: All right. Jonathan Karl, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Democrats>
