White House spokesman Josh Earnest stopped short of saying that Republicans would roll back critical progress on issues of importance to gays and lesbians, choosing instead to stress the important role President Obama has taken in advancing their cause.
Asked whether GOP presidential candidates’ near universal opposition to gay marriage has Obama worried, Earnest touted Obama’s role in championing gay and lesbian rights instead.
“That’s a hard thing to say,” Earnest said. “So much of the progress that has been made is progress that a substantial number of Americans have come around to supporting.”
He also gave Obama credit for pushing the country in the direction of supporting gay marriage and other rights for the LGBT community but declined to directly predict what might happen if a Republican is elected president.
“It’s my view that at least some of that social progress would have not been possible without some political leadership, and that’s why the president is justifiably proud of his record,” Earnest said.
When it comes to Republican presidential candidates, he said only that “there’s no denying the kind of authority they would wield sitting in the Oval Office on these issues.”
