President Barack Obama evolved on the issue of same sex marriage, and his views were in keeping with the way many Americans felt, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"Over the years the president has been challenged," Earnest said Tuesday. "I think that the president's views on this issue are not that different than the views that a lot of people across the country have felt."
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Obama praised the Supreme Court when it announced earlier this month it would reject appeals from states that sought to preserve gay marriage bans.
Host Joe Scarborough, describing himself as a "simple country lawyer," said he asked Earnest about the president's turnaround because Obama was "evolving faster than a Republican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court justice streaking to the far left."
The former Republican Florida congressman told Earnest that in 2008 the president maintained marriage was between a man and a woman. In 2012, the president said it should be left to the states. And, now, Obama said it was a "constitutionally protected right under the Equal Protection Clause" of the 14th amendment.
Earnest responded that people had originally approached the subject with "hard, preconceived notions about what they felt the definition of marriage should be," but added Obama was influenced by the "personal experience" of his staff "who have gay friends" or were gay themselves.