Anderson Cooper Calls Out Obama's Gay Marriage Flip Flopping (VIDEO)

Anderson Cooper called out President Obama on his Tuesday show for flip-flopping on gay marriage.

Obama is under increased scrutiny about his "evolving" views on gay rights in the wake of the battle for gay marriage in New York. Obama will be in the state on Thursday to attend a high-priced fundraiser with gay donors.

In his "Keeping Them Honest" segment, Cooper said, "New questions are being raised about what the president actually believes about gay marriage and whether his public opposition to it is real or just political posturing."

He then ran through the by-now familiar tale of President Obama's stance on gay marriage, from his initial written support for it in 1996 to his stated opposition to it when he began running for national office. (Obama advisers recently told The Huffington Post that his current position on the issue is that it should be left up to the states.)

Cooper played footage from the recent Netroots Nation Conference, where White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer was grilled about Obama's shifting statements about gay marriage.

"Hard to see how the president's position has changed so much," Cooper said. "The only thing that has changed is his need for a wider audience to vote for him."

Cooper then brought on gay rights activist Cleve Jones and Democratic strategist Paul Begala to discuss Obama's flip-flopping. Jones called the president's moves a "political calculation, and sadly, I think it's the wrong one."

"You know, Paul, Democrats attack conservatives for being hypocritical on issues that they're hypocritical about," Cooper said to Begala. "But I don't hear a lot of Democrats attacking their own president for hypocrisy."

WATCH:

Comments

[alex200901]

11:24 AM on 06/25/2011

How is evolving one's view on anything hypocritical? Majority of Americans DO NOT support this. Don't be deceived by the media cameras.

[delphillips]

06:58 AM on 06/25/2011

Yeah, it's too bad Anderson won't come out publicly either. He's beginning to sound a bit like a hypocrite too!

[phill273]

09:48 AM on 06/24/2011

Anderson Cooper is a real journalist. I'm surprised that his ratings are so low.

[moderatelymn]

08:30 AM on 06/24/2011

I echo the sentiments here that write about a President that needs to be a President for all the United States, not just the blue ones or just the red ones. It's one thing for a Senator to add his voice to a chorus of other like-minded collegues, but the President should not alienate anyone, rather slowly try to persuade others to see issues his way. Endorsing Civil unions are a good way to start the conversation. Also, I agree with someone here that said it should be noted that he would never veto a law allowing for gay marriage. So the focus shouldn't be about what President Obama can do, it should be about giving President Obama more Democrats to get some real work done.

[Anonani]

02:36 PM on 06/24/2011

Thank you for sounding and being so reasonable and sane in your thinking on this topic. It is a quagmire. One day this will be over and history will take note of how long it took and how difficult it was to move an entire Nation. This is a change that is inevitable, regardless of the volume of the dissent about it.

F& F.....

[MCWAY]

02:38 PM on 06/24/2011

That ain't happening, as we saw last November. And, if the economy continues to flounder, more Democrats (including and ESPECIALLY Obama) will be thrown out on their behinds. If you get Independents enraged about the economy and illegal immigration, coupled with conservatives enraged about the wild spending AND social issues like the definition of marriage and abortion, that's a one-two punch that will drop the liberals in 2012.

[elfish]

05:17 AM on 06/24/2011

This is not what you'd call courageous journalism. You have a whole political party whose entire platform is based on Homophobia and he calls out the President? You have 12 Republican candidates who've vowed to take us back to the 1880's and want every gay back in the closest and never seen in public again and he has nothing to say about them? Another bit of proof that the main stream media is 100 miles from liberal.

[Cakey4814]

08:35 AM on 06/24/2011

You make an excellent point..faved...

[MCWAY]

09:35 AM on 06/24/2011

He's calling out the president, because Obama keeps flip-flopping on the issue. In New York, as a gay fundraiser, in front of gay "marriage" supporters (with NY's marriage law at stake), he's all for it (except in name). Drag him down south to the Carolinas or Florida, and Obama will change his tune in a heartbeat. It's a political. If Obama flat-out endorses gay "marriage", he will pay a huge political price (at a time when he needs all the votes he can get). He will lose some Latino voters (many of whom are Catholic). He will lose more white voters (especially in the South, in states he flipped to blue but a few votes away from going back to red). He will even lose a handful of black voters. Obama has to ask himself, if it's worth such a loss just to pander to gays.

[JeremiahA]

03:52 AM on 06/24/2011

This was no more than a segment on Cooper's personal agenda, a political hack job at the president. Mr. Cooper only had a guest who supported his own viewpoint and left the guest unchallenged. No "How did you come to that conclusion?" or "Same-sex marriage denies a child a father or a mother. How do you address this concern?" and so on.

[sullamander]

04:51 AM on 06/24/2011

How does same sex marriage deny a child anything if the couple can't have a biological child in the first place?

[Firehorsegirl]

03:47 AM on 06/24/2011

I adore AC and his crusade for truth. Like another poster, I am taken aback that Coop would harshly spotlight the president on this when he knows how reality causes one to make compromises (as he has had to do). I believe Obama believes in gay marriage but knows most of America needs baby steps to get there on this issue!! Hello!!

[Hohummm]

03:26 AM on 06/24/2011

Obama would never have got elected if he supported gay marriage and Cooper knows this. Would Cooper prefer a Republican President instead? Is Cooper a log-cabin Republican?

[Lahonda]

02:09 AM on 06/24/2011

...on the right? No doubt about the sentiment.

[danceswithdata]

02:00 AM on 06/24/2011

Each and every president we have will play politics, first and foremost. Obama is no different, even though for quite some time many millions of us thought so. He will do and say whatever it takes to get re-elected. If you want to know what he really thinks, wait until his presidency ends.

[qwestwardly]

01:42 AM on 06/24/2011

Most of those marriages were polygamous. It wasn't until recently many societies had monogamous marriage. Revisionist history or ignorance of the facts, societies have evolved into republics, in part, to ensure consenting commited realtionships between adults are recognized to ensure integrity and that states would secure rights between spouses. Ignoring the fact marriages before the modern age were property agreements refutes your argument from its flawed premise. You are misinformed about 'a man and a woman' - polygyny and polyandry were the 'norm' in that period you cite and homosexual marriages were not uncommon. The entire premise of the United States is 'to form a more perfect union' socially. it is a process, moving forward, recognizing the intrisict value of human rights to ensure "Life, Liberty, and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS" - so please, join us in the 21st century!

[Lahonda]

02:12 AM on 06/24/2011

Look... everyone is different. Why do you hang on the fact that someone who is not like you is bad. Afraid that the human species will fade to nothingness? Gays are people just like you.

[bootsnchaps60]

09:44 PM on 06/23/2011

Equal protection under the law for unions of consenting adults at or above legal age seems the best goal. The commitment of the persons who are united matters more than the term. A civil union or a civil ceremony is still a "marriage" of ideas and commitment. "Marriage" in this country is tainted to a degree by the reality of the frequent outcome of divorce. Lots of folks in church weddings lie to God about their eventual degree of commitment to the marriage (were those church weddings Newt, Arnold, and Rudy?) I was raised Catholic in the days when divorce wasn't recognized. What happened to that?

[Terence Duke]

11:12 PM on 06/23/2011

what another load of you know what...".Homosexual s want more than this: they want entitlemen ts for their sexual orientatio n, something nobody has."

um straight DO have that....what are you talking about.. where do you get your ideas from try some real sites with real science:

http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/sexual-orientation.aspx

now you will find the real extremists: the CHRISTIAN extremists which is the majority of them hence why they are not christian but thats another topic. have tons of sites obviously where you got your false info from because some of your points are right out of them. Linquistics is a funny thing and used very effectively with simple thinking people full of half truths etc;

[Blew Balls]

08:43 PM on 06/23/2011

Obama still refusing gay marriage http://blewstate.net/2011/06/23/obama-still-refusing-gay-marriage/

[Carol Gebert]

08:24 PM on 06/23/2011

The ONLY people who should make a decision about gay marriage, are the gay people thinking about marrying each other. Period. For everyone else - its is none of your business!!!

[MCWAY]

09:38 AM on 06/24/2011

If they want the state to give them benefits, or people in certain enterprises to recognize it, it becomes THEIR BUSINESS.

[Carol Gebert]

10:30 AM on 06/24/2011

I assume you want that to apply to heterosexuals, too? Should your marriage be my business to approve of, or not? I don't remember you asking my permission.

[Monogenes]

03:44 PM on 06/23/2011

Anderson Cooper needs to save what little respect he has left as a journalist and simply report the news without spreading his tainted ideologies. Everyone needs to come to terms with the definition of marriage and stop trying to obliterate the principles it set out to enforce. Those who do wrong always try to deviate the right. It just so happens to be in this case the purity of marriage.

[Carol Gebert]

08:21 PM on 06/23/2011

"Its principles?" -- like to death do us part? Shall we declare divorce illegal?

[Monogenes]

07:46 AM on 06/24/2011

I didn't say that.....you did...

[Rhubarbarian]

06:19 AM on 06/24/2011

Purity of marriage...as practiced by Donald Trump or Newt Gingrich?

[Monogenes]

07:45 AM on 06/24/2011

A person who forms his views on an institution because of the actions of a couple hotshots is terribly misguided. It is called free will.