CNN’s Peter Hamby followed Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to a speaking appearance at the College of Charleston, and tried to pin Paul down on some of the more difficult issues for a libertarian-leaning, high-profile Republican to take a stance on, like gay marriage and drug legalization.
Paul’s reply on gay marriage was a bit of a cliff-hanger.
Paul generally says that, while he personally supports the traditional definition of marriage, marriage is a state and local issue.
But Hamby pressed Paul, and asked him to comment on whether Republicans are out of step with a society rapidly embracing gay marriage. Paul’s somewhat cryptic reply, as told by Hamby, is worth quoting in full:
It sounded, for a moment, as if Paul was hinting that he, too, could change his thinking about marriage.
“The bottom line is, I’m old fashioned, I’m a traditionalist,” he said. “I believe in old-fashioned traditional marriage. But, I don’t really think the government needs to be too involved with this, and I think that the Republican Party can have people on both sides of the issue.”
“You could rethink it at some point, too?” I asked him.
He shrugged, and gave me a half-grimace. It wasn’t a yes or a no, but it revealed Paul’s complicated dance as he tries to color outside the lines of the Republican Party.
It’s far from an endorsement of gay marriage, but is closer to it than the average Republican would venture. A handful of GOPers have signaled their support.
Earlier this year, Paul delivered a similarly noncommittal comment on the Republican Party’s future on this issue. “I don’t think we can completely flip,” he told the New York Times, “But can we become, to use the overused term, a bigger tent?”
Paul has embraced the philosophy of rethinking positions recently, as he has turned a gradually more hawkish eye to ISIS in Iraq.
“As world events change, obviously you change your analysis,” he remarked on CBS last month.
Hamby also observed that, during Paul’s speech, he became “noticeably uncomfortable” when asked whether he supported Plan B, or the “morning-after pill.”
“I am not opposed to birth control,” Paul said.
