it s outrageous and these thousands of men and women are serving in all capacities. so you re really undermining military readiness. it disregards them and disrespects them and i think it actually harms our military readiness and the national security. and this contradicts also the president s then candidate trump s assurances during the campaign saying he would be better than hillary clinton for lgbtq people. well, you know, i worked so hard with other on repealing don t ask don t tell, i mean, this is ex-just an extension of that kind of discrimination. these are men and women who will sacrifice their lives for this country and the commander in chief is disregarding that. it makes no sense. it s so discriminatory and so toxic and congress needs to push back. i m going to work really hard on a piece of legislation that the president does not do this to our troops who are serving bravely and with enormous respect and credibility.
from holder and obama. repealing don t ask don t tell in 2010. no longer defending the act in 2011 and the president declaring his support in 2012. saying the new policy undermines state s rights. it appears to be another example of the obama administration imposing it s will on the states. our legislature has decided to recognize same sex marriage and could be an issue that are having this debate or law sli lawdations. a number that drops to 33 in june when a law legalizing gay marriage goes into effect.
the incredible professionalism that jeh brings to the job. and the bipartisan approach that appropriately he takes when it comes to national security. he s also earned a reputation as a cool and calm leader. jeh appreciates that any organization s greatest asset is its people. at the pentagon, he guided the report explaining why our men and women in uniform serving our country openly would not weaken our military. congress ended up using that report that jeh helped to craft to justify repealing don t ask don t tell, and america and our military are stronger because we did. in part because of jeh s determined leadership. i know he would bring that same commitment to our hard-working folks at dhs. and finally, jeh believes in a deep and personal way that keeping america safe requires us also upholding the values and
more advocacy to victims, more frequent looking into claims and the president has been no stranger to modernizing our military, from repealing don t ask don t tell and letting women serve alongside men in combat. should he do more? can he do more? remember, top military brass are notorious for their resistance to change. that s a really important point, the last point about the resistance to change. that s why i feel like the president speaking out about this yesterday when he was thinking our military was not only remarkable but a really important moment for the military. i think it was one that people weren t expecting. it s a very delicate balance and the president knows all too well how to handle this. i think you probably saw a lot of eye balls that read his speech before it was even delivered. i just want to point out how big of a problem this is. it was such a big problem he
what can you tell us about discussions leading up to that decision to go public. i know this was a process for him over time. he s always someone who has been committed to gay rights. just look at the record during his first term, repealing don t ask don t tell was a signature accomplishment. but he did a lot of other work he advanced hospital visitation visits for gay couples. he advanced equality protections within the federal government, the justice department has stopped defending the defense of marriage act which is being considered before the supreme court. he was a long time supporter of civil unions but at the end of the day in conversations with gay friends, in conversations with gay staffers, seeing those committed relationships, the president was moved to support marriage equality and i think that his vocal support for it has helped move public opinion on it across the country. you actually saw three states