(AP Photo/Richard Drew)Just lay off the lady already. NPR got the chance to interview the potential 2016 candidate, Hillary Clinton, and things kinda got out of hand. The NPR interviewer pushed and pushed Mrs Clinton to the point where the former Secretary of State had to put her foot down and explain that if her position changed on gay marriage, it wasn’t done for political reasons like was being implied.
“I have to say, I think you are being very persistent, but you are playing with my words and playing with what is such an important issue,” Clinton said.
“I’m just trying to clarify so I can understand …” Gross said.
“No, I don’t think you are trying to clarify,” Clinton snapped back. “I think you’re trying to say I used to be opposed and now I’m in favor and I did it for political reasons, and that’s just flat wrong. So let me just state what I feel like you are implying and repudiate it. I have a strong record, I have a great commitment to this issue, and I am proud of what I’ve done and the progress we’re making.”
The exchange comes the same week that Clinton began her book tour and accompanying media rollout, during which there has already been at least one other rocky moment: When she said that after leaving the White House, she and former President Bill Clinton were “dead broke,” a remark she has since sought to clarify.
A recording of the NPR interview was shared with POLITICO by America Rising, a Republican research group that’s spent the majority of its time focused on Clinton. “Fresh Air” is a favorite program among progressives.
“I did not grow up even imagining gay marriage, and I don’t think you probably did, either,” Clinton said to Gross. “This was an incredibly new and important idea that people on the front lines of the gay rights movement began to talk about and slowly, but surely, convinced others of the rightness of that position. And when I was ready to say what I said, I said it.”
Clinton was lauded at the State Department for focusing on LGBT issues related to agency personnel and also in other countries. But she formally stated her support for gay marriage only after a number of prominent Democrats, such as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, and even some Republicans, such as Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, had already done so.
Her allies have attributed her timing to the need for her to stay apolitical while at the State Department.
“You know, somebody is always first, Terry,” Clinton said. “Somebody is always out front, and thank goodness they are. But that doesn’t mean that those who join later, in being publicly supportive or even privately accepting that there needs to be change, are any less committed. You could not be having the sweep of marriage equality across our country if nobody changed their mind, and thank goodness so many of us have.”
