Vice President Joe Biden apparently felt bad enough for spilling his views on same-sex marriage last Sunday on Meet the Press and forcing the White House to finally confront the issue head-on that he apologized to President Obama yesterday shortly before the president announced that his own views have finally “evolved” to the point where he, too, is comfortable with marriage equality.
The New York Times reports that Biden offered the apology a few hours ahead of Obama’s hastily scheduled interview with Robin Roberts of ABC News. Obama, reportedly, bore his vice president no enmity, though during the interview with Roberts he did say that Biden was “a little bit over his skis” but that Biden made his comments out of “out of generosity of spirit.”
However, Obama’s campaign staff were reported to be quite upset with their No. 2. Politico reported last night that Obama and Biden’s re-election campaign had intended to endorse same-sex marriage, but likely not until shortly before the Democratic National Convention in early September. Biden’s statements Sunday were followed quickly by rehashes from Obama campaign officials and the White House that both the president and vice president’s views were still “evolving,” despite evidence to the contrary.
But since the first snippets of the ABC News interview aired yesterday afternoon, the Obama campaign has pressed the president’s new support of same-sex marriage as aggressively as possible, including with several fundraising emails penned by top Democratic Party surrogates.
Still, timing-wise, Biden’s comments were something of another gaffe for the famously loquacious vice president. But it appears he realized the goof, The Times reports:
It was easily the biggest incidence of crossed wires between the garrulous vice president and his more button-down boss, in an administration that has been marked by occasional eruptions by Mr. Biden. And its effect was magnified both because it involved a fraught social issue and because it came just as the general election campaign is heating up.
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Mr. Biden has said nothing publicly since his remarks on the NBC program “Meet the Press.” But he has told staff members at the White House that he regrets putting the president in an awkward spot, several officials said. These officials declined to characterize his precise remarks to Mr. Obama, or Mr. Obama’s response.
