In Leaked Audio, Ted Cruz Says Fighting Gay Marriage Not A 'Top-Three' Priority

newsweek.com ^ | 12/23/15

[Helicondelta]

Asked by a Republican gay-rights supporter at a Madison Avenue fundraiser in New York if a Ted Cruz administration would make fighting gay marriage a top priority, the candidate's reply was succinct: "No." Audio of the event, which took place in December, was obtained by Politico's Mike Allen

[Oldexpat]

The states have the right to define relationships because they are responsible for disolving them. They have no right to define marriage which is a religious issue. Gays should be able to have recognized domestic partnerships to protect their rights. But don’t cove churches into performing gay marriages or busines’s into serving them on their terms.

[taildragger]

I said it years ago we didn't need gay marriage but a flat tax to treat gays fairly under the code ( without getting into the weeds I saw it 1st hand ), and no one here got it. Now if Ted gets aboard a flat tax that is a ground up redo of the tax code given many gays are entrepreneurs that also face a 35% business tax, bringing that down to the same flat rate ( or eliminating it entirely ) would benefit us all.

[bramps]

It can become a top priority in year 2,3,or 4 of a Trump or Cruz presidency. Especially after replacement of 1 or 2 Supreme Court justices.

[VanDeKoik]

If this I true, then there are two problems for Cruz.

1) If Trump had said this, you know that the Cruz supporters and bloggers would be screaming bloody murder. There would be thousands of posts of how this PROVES that Trump os a Trojan leftist...blah blah blah. Now they have to either ignore this or spin it as no big deal.

2) Cruz has built his support on evangelicals. People that are almost always looking for an excuse to dump you if you even give the slightest whiff of falling short of their sometimes very lofty expectations. If this I a true statement from Cruz, then expect more than a few to jump ship or stay home.

[so_real]

Cruz's response actually endears me to him further. Yes, the fifty states are designed to be fifty independent experiments with the cream rising to the top where it will to be embraced by the others. And, yes, enforcing the Constitution allows for that and cuts through far more than just three issues. Cruz solves the problem by enforcing the Founders' vision rather than writing new laws. I'd say his solution is the best I've heard to date.

[cripplecreek]

and what did Trump have to say?

Without looking it up, something along the lines of....'Its too bad she had to go to jail (speaking of Kim Davis) but its the law. Maybe that's not the right job for her'.

[Psalm 144]

No society endorsed such things without collapsing soon after. This current culture is beyond salvage. The issue is to preserve what is best and rebuilt on the ruins.

[plain talk]

stopping gay marriage? The supremes have ruled. Not sure how one stops it now. A key thing we need now is a conservative President who will pick conservative SC justices. Ted will get that done.

[CA Conservative]

Asked by a Republican gay-rights supporter at a Madison Avenue fundraiser in New York if a Ted Cruz administration would make fighting gay marriage a top priority, the candidate's reply was succinct: "No." Audio of the event, which took place in December, was obtained by Politico's Mike Allen

This characterization of what Cruz said has already been debunked on another thread. Cruz said nothing different in this meeting than he has said in public - that he would defend the Constitution, including religious liberty, and that issues such as abortion and marriage should be returned to the states, where the 10th Amendment says they should be.

[ksm1]

Agreed.

[GeaugaRepublican]

I am for Trump first and Cruz 2nd, but I agree with Cruz 100% about the 10th amendment and the DC Powergrab. The consolidation of power in DC as opposed to each individual state has gotten us into the dire shape the country is in. It was much more expensive for special interests to have to lobby in a bunch of states vs. just opening one office in DC.
The consolidation of power and graft in DC has made the DC real estate market boom, even through the worst real estate market bust in US history.

[taildragger]

"Cruz's response actually endears me to him further. Yes, the fifty states are designed to be fifty independent experiments with the cream rising to the top where it will to be embraced by the others."

Yes, this was a 10th Amendment question, not the 14th. The 14th should have never been cited in chain migration, Roe v Wade, and now gay marriage.

FR-er Legal Eagles / Constitutional Scholars, tell me where my statement that the 14th has been abused is wrong and I will stand corrected...

[C210N]

Exactly.

Yes, this is a TOP-Three conservative fight, along with a hundred (or more) other things.

But, it is not nor should it be a top three for Cruz in his run for POTUS.

There is no need for him to focus on every battle - he needs to focus on 3, no more, no less, during his campaign, to make his campaign competitive and focused and effective.

There are millions of conservatives out there that can and do focus on the other hundred (or more) of the other things as *their* top 3.

[Uversabound]

Go Trump but I love Ted Cruz too!

Hey is there a team here....

Ted just says what is true and correct.

WOW! Especially stopping courts from maing public policy issues that are left to the people....exactly right like he took it out of my brain.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[Buckeye McFrog]

And even if that happens, we’ll have the thorny mess of tens of thousands of “legally married” gay couples to contend with.

[pas]

As well as the debt and job loss.

[Theodore R.]

Also tens of millions adore “gay marriage” (a term conservatives should not use) and do not understand that it is an attack on religious freedom. They are too uninformed to know.

[NELSON111]

I would agree....it's not top three. 1) Terrorism...2) Illegal Immigration...3) Gun rights 4) The Economy and run-away spending...5) Traditional Marriage.

So...it's not top three. Stopping the tyranny of big government would stop same-sex marriage.

But...UNFORTUNATELY...what I have found in life is you can't un-ring a bell...and however desired it may be to un-ring the bell of gays in the military and gay-marriage...its going to be almost impossible to do it. There are hills we can die on ...and hills that can wait to die on. That is a hill that can wait to die on....because if we don't fight on these other hills first...we won't live to fight and die on that hill.

[demshateGod]

Yep.

[Theodore R.]

Ted will get that done.

Something that Dwight David Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., Ronald Reagan, and two "Bushes" couldn't quite get right. Even Calvin Coolidge inflicted Harlan Fiske Stone on the nation.