Hillary Clinton still privately opposes gay marriage, even though she has publicly flipped to embrace it in order to shore up support from the cultural left.
Clinton campaign staffers struggled to figure out how to explain her onetime support for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which her husband signed into law, according to emails from John Podesta’s inbox that were leaked by Wikileaks.
“What about broadening the perspectives at that time? Acknowledging there were a lot of diff views vs she was wrong. ?,” a Clinton campaign staffer mused to colleagues on October 25, 2015.
Lead Clinton speechwriter Dan Schwerin explained that Clinton still believes in traditional marriage:
I’m not saying double down or ever say it again. I’m just saying that she’s not going to want to say she was wrong about that, given she and her husband believe it and have repeated it many times. Better to reiterate evolution, opposition to DOMA when court considered it, and forward looking stance.