Joe Miller has been known for giving the press the runaround and, in his interview today with Rachel Maddow, he took that rather literally. The approximately five-minute interview took place as Miller was walking from a roof, down to his car, with Maddow peppering him with questions about same sex marriage as they walked.
Maddow asked him if he’d support a constitutional ban on same sex marriage. “That’s up to the people,” Miller said. “If you get a three quarters vote ratifying — I’d vote for it.”
Miller wouldn’t comment on the anti-gay Christian activist he paid as a campaign consultant, but when Maddow asked if being gay is a choice, he replied: “I think that’s up to the individual. The individual has to make that decision.”
Maddow asked him to clarify which choice he meant: “About whether or not they’re gay, or about whether or not they believe that?”
Miller took a long pause, and said: “You know, I’m not going to intrude upon an individual’s decision as to what he or she does. The fact of the matter is, it’s a state issue.”
He continued:
We’re an increasingly diverse country. I want to be straight with you. And as a diverse country, I think it’s important that we recognize there are different approaches to different values. I think that’s it’s best for states to be able to make those choices.
He added that though he thinks same sex marriage is “at core a state issue,” there are federal issues like “taxation policy” that are “intertwined.”
Maddow asked: “So you do want a federal role in restricting the states’ ability to legalize gay marriage, but at the state level—”
“That’s not what I said,” Miller interrupted. “I said there are obviously federal decisions made based on the standards of marriage.”
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