New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters said there are still many Democrats who will say that President Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton "didn't exactly show a whole lot of courage" on supporting marriage equality during his first term in office.
While discussing the landmark Supreme Court decision handed down last week that struck down state bans on gay marriage, Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough reminded the panel that President Obama publicly opposed such a measure when he first ran for president and again in 2012 until Vice President Joe Biden got out in front of the administration.
The White House was initially furious with Biden when he announced his support for gay marriage in May 2012 on Meet the Press, with Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett reportedly accusing Biden of disloyalty. In the end, however, Biden's statements helped swing Obama on the issue.
The Washington Free Beacon also pointed out libertarian philanthropist David Koch supported gay marriage before Hillary Clinton pulled a flip-flop on the issue.
"Please everybody, be clear-eyed about this," Scarborough said. "Because I saw a lot of people in the White House saying, 'Look what we did, it's amazing' ... So the Republicans are now taking, to be honest intellectually, Barack Obama's position in 2012 in his last presidential campaign until Joe Biden embarrassed him and made him come out."
"I think there are a lot of Democrats that would say and will say to this day that the president and Hillary Clinton didn't exactly show a whole lot of courage and leadership on that issue at the time," Peters said.