captions by vitac www.vitac.com anyone cheering president obama s new stance on same-sex marriage has vice president joe biden to thank. the president himself is now confirming what many had suspected that the vice president forced the president s hand when biden announced his support for gay marriage over the weekend and now we re hearing that s a sore subject at least among some white house insiders. our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is working the story for us. what are you hearing over there, jessica? reporter: wolf, there are times when a president is more forgiving than his aides and this may be one of those times. some of the president s top aides are deeply annoyed. they acknowledge the president was going to come out and speak out in favor of same-sex marriage before the democratic convention, but boy, are they frustrated that vice president biden made it happen sooner than they wanted. he was planning to say this some time before the democra
we begin tonight with new details about president obama s personal evolution on a potent political issue, same-sex marriage. i have just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that i think same-sex couples should be able to get married. with that in that oval office vint with abc news, the president officially switched his position. in 2008, he ran as i acandidate who opposed same-sex marriage. cnn is told he is ready to support it and green light those that want to add language to the 2012 campaign platform. why the switch? i had hesitated on gay marriage in part because i thought civil unions would be sufficient. that that was something that would give people hospital visitation rights and other elements that we take for granted. and, i was sensitive to the fact that for a lot of people, the word marriage was something that o evokes very powerful traditions and religious beliefs. over the course of several years, as i talked
should be able to get married. truly historic and potentially watershed moment as president obama comes out, formally, publicly, enthusiastically in support of gay marriage and with the election less than six months away the political implications are enormous. we ll look at all of the potential fallout. reactions from both sides of this issue pouring in right now into the situation room. we will hear what influential groups and individuals are saying about the president s new position on gay marriage. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. captions by vitac www.vitac.com we re following the breaking news this hour. president obama announcing his support for same-sex marriage, a move with potentially huge political and social implications. listen to what he told abc news in a white house interview just a little while ago. over the course of several years, as i talk to friends and family and neighbors, when i think about members of my own staff who are i
tennessee to mississippi. the same mitt romney who said auto makers should go bankrupt now is saying this the auto companies needed to go through bankruptcy before government help. and frankly that s finally what the president did. he took them through bankruptcy. that was the right course. it was the uaw and the president that delayed the idea of bankruptcy. i pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy. and finally when that was done can and help was given, the companies got back on their feet. so i ll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry has come back. let s go to jim acosta in michigan. holy switch dps eroo, batman. can you explain romney s line of thinking to us? the romney campaign has been saying this for several weeks now bm. he is making the case that it is the managed bankruptcy process that helped the u.s. auto industry, not the bailout. so h eis, as he said in that interview, taking credit for the survival of the u.s. auto industry. obviously t
hands. plus, an election of evil and a major change of course by a leading ally, france elected it s first socialist president in two decades, we re looking at what it means for the united states. i m wolf blitzer, you re still in the situation room. the vice president joe biden said over the weekend he s fine with gay marriage and arnie duncan says he believes gay and lesbians should be allowed to marry. putting him at odds with the president of the united states. jessica yellin is working the story for us. jessica, causing quite an uproar there, what s going on? reporter: this is clearly an unwelcome topic for a white house that pronounces to make all decisions based on principle not on politics. it certainly looks as if the vice president supports gay marriage. who do you love? the president sets the policy. i am absolutely comfortable that the fact that men marrying wo i and women marrying women, are entitled to all the civil rights and the civil liberties. report