ORLANDO, FL — Members of the crowd gathered for the Fox News/YouTube debate booed a video of a gay soldier in Iraq who asked if the nine presidential candidates on stage would work to “circumvent” the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Watch it:
Rick Santorum answered the question, and said that the repeal of the military’s ban on openly gay servicemembers was granting them special rights. From the debate transcript:
I would say any type of sexual activity has no place in the military. The fact they are making a point to include it as a provision within the military that we are going to recognize a group of people and give them a special privilege to and removing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell I think tries to inject social policy into the military. And the military’s job is to do one thing to defend our the military, wh I all-volunteer the ability to do so in a way that is [Inaudible]
The cringe-worthy moment has become something of a trend at the Republican presidential debates this year. On Sept. 7, the biggest applause line of the night went to the then-234 executions that had occurred during Rick Perry’s time as governor. At the CNN/Tea Party Express debate a few days later, members of the audience voiced their support for letting an uninsured man die.
Update: TPM spoke with candidates and GOP spinmeisters after the debate about the boos.
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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