Thread: Obama spokesman suggests 1996 statement supporting marriage equality a fake

NETROOTS: Pfeiffer suggests 1996 Obama statement supporting marriage equality a fake | Washington Blade - America's Leading Gay News Source

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer on Friday suggested President Obama’s stated support for same-sex marriage in a 1996 questionnaire response was fake, despite the signature from Obama attached to the statement.

“If you actually go back and look, that questionnaire was actually filled out by someone else, not the president,” Pfeiffer said.

Pfeiffer made the remarks during a question-and-answer panel during the Netroots Nation convention in which Daily Kos’ Kaili Joy Gray inquired about the 1996 statement from Obama.

When he was running to become an Illinois state senator, Obama said in a questionnaire response to what is now the Windy City Times that he favors “legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”

Obama has since said he believes marriage is between one man and one woman, although he supports civil unions. Late last year, Obama suggested his position on same-sex marriage could “evolve,” but he hasn’t come out in support of marriage equality.

“It seems like his position has actually evolved from being more supportive of civil rights to less supportive,” Gray observed during Netroots Nation. “Is the president going to evolve again and get back to supporting civil rights on gay marriage?”

After Pfeiffer responded that the questionnaire was “filled out by someone else,” Gray asked him to clarify if he believes the response was “fake.”

Pfeiffer replied, “What I was going to tell you is the president’s position is being consistent on this.”

Pressed further on whether he believes the questionnaire response was phony, Pfeiffer said, “This was litigated in the campaign. There were a number of other issues on the campaign.”

Those in the audience during the question-and-answer session responded to Pfeiffer’s remarks on the 1996 statement on marriage with audible boos and gaps. Although Pfeiffer contends that the 1996 questionnaire response wasn’t filled out by the president, the statement submitted to the Windy City Times, then known as Outlines, has his signature on the document.

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UPDATE: In a statement issued following Pfeiffer’s remarks, Windy City Times publisher Tracy Baim asserted that her newspaper stands by the reporting in 1996 on Obama’s questionnaire response.

“This is the first time a claim has been made that Obama did not complete the surveys himself, even though his signature is on the typed one sent to Outlines, and the IMPACT survey appears to be completed in his own writing,” the statement says.

According to the Windy City Times, the questionnaire response was faxed from the law firm for which Obama at the time. Additionally, Outlines newspaper subsequently reported that he backed gay marriage, something his campaign never denied in 1996.

“He would have had a very small campaign staff, so it was unlikely he had someone else complete the form,” the statement says. “In fact he went to the trouble of typing full answers when the form was actually able to be completed as a Q&A. Even if someone else completed the form, Obama signed it, and never denied subsequent reports of its content.”

This administration has reached a new low. It is now going to suddenly deny that Obama ever even held any of the less reactionary positions he once was elected on?

Then again I guess this shouldn't be surprising considering the way he threw Rev. Wright under the bus; evidently he only ever showed up in that church to score political points in Chicago. As with Mitt Romney, Obama's issue positions and image needed to adapt to his national ambitions.


Apparently Obama was afraid to show his face at a "progressive" event, but I heard his spokesman was booed there anyway.

It's quite amusing to watch Obama's people spin and contort to cover up his lies...just so he can retain his disappointed base.

But no worries for Obama...I mean, who will those Liberal Sheeple vote for if they don't vote for Obama, eh?