DOMA: First GOP Debate Showcases Santorum’s Anti-Gay Politics
Thursday night’s GOP debate between Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, and Gary Johnson showcased the anti-gay politics of the GOP, but especially of Rick Santorum. While it took almost an hour for the DOMA and “gay marriage” question to be posed, it was. Rick Santorum, introduced as the most socially-conservative of the candidates, did not disappoint.
READ: Rick Santorum: Out Of Touch With America’s Families
Asked, “Are you willing to tone down your positions on abortion and homosexuality in an effort to reach more voters and help the GOP coalesce behind a more fiscally focused platform?,” Santorum replied, staking his ground and bashing his in absentia opponent, Governor Mitch Daniels, “Anybody that would suggest that we call a truce on the moral issues doesn’t understand what America is all about.”
“America is a country that is based on this concept, and the Declaration of Independence, that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. Rights come from God and the first of which is life. The second of which is liberty,” Santorum preached.
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But what Santorum really means is “Allow straight people to be free, and to pursue their own dream and to serve their god, to serve their family and community.”
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“Those two concepts really transformed the world because it said that government was going to be limited. Allow people to be free, and to pursue their own dream and to serve their god, to serve their family and community. That is only possible if we have strong families. Strong marriage is at the root of strong families. And if we have a respect for human life because of course we’re all created equal.”
The irony of Santorum’s argument obviously escaped him. “Rights come from God,” Santorum said, applauding a limited government. A limited government would allow marriage equality, but that concept is lost on Santorum.
(Santorum has the embarrassing distinction to have won Politifact’s “Pants on Fire” award.)
“Allow people to be free, and to pursue their own dream and to serve their god, to serve their family and community,” Santorum says, but what Santorum really means is “Allow straight people to be free, and to pursue their own dream and to serve their god, to serve their family and community.”
Santorum is the ultimate bigot. Same-sex couples want to build strong families too, but to Santorum, families haeaded by same-sex coupes aren’t real families. According to Santorum, single-parent families aren’t real families, either. Essentially, only white, married middle- or upper-class families are real families.
Ron Paul was asked, “Are you advocating legalizing gay marriage in this country?”
“I’ve spent an entire chapter in my new book on marriage,” Paul replied, plugging his book, adding, “the government should just be out of it.” Paul said he favors marriage by the church or private contract, and that “we just shouldn’t have this argument.”
READ: Does Ron Paul Want To Stop The Supreme Court From Ruling On Prop 8?
“I have my standards, but I shouldn’t have to impose my standards on others,” the Texas Congressman, married 53 years said,suggesting that same-sex marriages don’t meet his standards, but hthat he has to allow them to stay true to his principles. “Others have their standards, but they shouldn’t have the right to impose their marriage standards on me.” Paul said he believes marriage, if it must be regulated by the government, should only be at the state level.
Paul supports DOMA because it “protects” the states. “The Defense of Marriage Act was really designed to make sure the states have the privilege of dealing with it [marriage].”
Never mind that laws, and the state itself, exist — or should — to protect people, not the state.
Herman Cain said Obama’s decision to not defend DOMA was “a breach of presidential duty bordering on treason.” He then gave a history lesson on DOMA, then misstated the presidential oath of office to fulfill his position.
Cain’s reason for disagreeing with Obama’s decision on DOMA is because “that is asking the Department of Justice to not uphold a law.”
That was the entire depth of his reasoning.
(Oh, by the way, Frank Luntz, the GOP pollster, after the debate said that Cain won. Go figure.)
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Fox News hosts are suggesting that President Donald Trump is just an average guy.
In a segment on the cable network’s “Outnumbered” on Wednesday, co-host Harris Faulkner told her colleagues, “it’s ironic, though, but he’s not really all that different.”
Faulkner then sought to portray Trump — a billionaire real estate developer who owns multiple golf courses and the Mar-a-Lago resort — as relatable, describing him as “just a guy’s guy” and “not really all that different” from ordinary Americans.
“He loves McDonald’s,” she said.
“He likes to hang.”
“He loves his family.”
“And kind of, like, not that McDonald’s is poor to being, like, an all American, but I think it is — love those fries,” Faulkner remarked.
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“But, I mean, he’s all those things that you don’t have to have a billion dollars or have to have zero dollars to get,” she exclaimed. “He’s just a guy’s guy.”
Faulkner went on to say that Trump “respects women.”
“He’s hired a lot of tremendously talented women — we’ve met them.”
“My dad,” she added, “used to say, the test of a man is how he treats the women in his life.”
“Can he be that alpha, and be loving, and generous, and all those things?”
Co-host Riley Gaines added, “They called him a misogynist but really he’s the worst misogynist, ever.”
Faulkner: He’s a billionaire—he’s different. It’s ironic though he’s not all that different. He loves McDonald’s, he loves his family. He is just a guy’s guy. pic.twitter.com/TorAoZXzmB
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 14, 2026
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A prominent House Republican is calling for U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify before Congress over her failure to comply with the requirements of federal law surrounding the release of the Epstein Files.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the federal government to release all unclassified documents in the Epstein files by December 19. Reports state that less than one percent of all the documents have been made public.
U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), the lead co-sponsor of legislation forcing a vote on the release of the files, on Wednesday said that the Attorney General “should be called to testify in the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee where she must answer for her failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.”
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Congressman Massie also called it “unusual” that Bondi has “never appeared in front of the House Judiciary Committee.”
Massie, along with California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, last week asked a federal judge to consider appointing a special master to oversee the production and publication of the Epstein Files.
“Put simply, the DOJ cannot be trusted with making mandatory disclosures under the Act,” Massie and Khanna wrote to Judge Paul E. Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York, according to Politico.
“I think it’s the quickest way to produce, to expedite the document production, because these lawyers at the DOJ understand what judges can do in courtrooms,” Massie added. “And they are already communicating with that judge, even though they’re not communicating with us.”
U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) told CNN that “Donald Trump continues to lead a White House coverup of the Epstein files.”
“Why has it been weeks now, weeks, that the date has passed, where all the files should have been released to the Congress and to the public? We have received one percent of the files. That is criminal, it’s illegal. What is Pam Bondi and Donald Trump hiding?”
READ MORE: Trump Blasted Federal Prosecutors as ‘Weak’ for Not Targeting His Adversaries: Report
Image via Reuters
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jonathan Ross, who reportedly fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, at point-blank range in Minneapolis last week, is now said to be in hiding.
“I know for a fact now he has to be in hiding … for the safety of him and his family,” Trump border czar Tom Homan said during an episode of the “Will Cain Country” podcast, according to The Hill.
Homan alleged that there are “wanted” posters with Ross’ picture and license plate number, and said that Ross is receiving death threats.
“It’s beyond the pale,” Homan added.
READ MORE: Trump Blasted Federal Prosecutors as ‘Weak’ for Not Targeting His Adversaries: Report
He also suggested that Ross may decide to take legal action against those who have labeled him a murderer.
Vice President JD Vance said that Ross and all ICE officers have absolute federal immunity. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said Ross has “federal immunity.”
“The precedent here is very simple,” Vance said, according to CNN. “You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action – that’s a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job.”
Legal experts disagree.
“The idea that a federal agent has absolute immunity for crimes they commit on the job is absolutely ridiculous,” said Michael J.Z. Mannheimer, a constitutional law expert, told CNN.
The Trump Department of Justice has said it will not open a civil rights investigation into Ross’ shooting of Good.
President Donald Trump claimed that Good was acting in a “disrespectful” manner while he defended the ICE officer.
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Image via Reuters
Trump Blasted Federal Prosecutors as ‘Weak’ for Not Targeting His Adversaries: Report
Federal Officer Who Shot Renee Good ‘In Hiding’: Report
House Republican Calls for Bondi to Testify Over Epstein Files ‘Failure to Comply’
Fox Hosts Try to Convince Viewers Trump ‘Not Really All That Different’ From Them
Fox Hosts Try to Convince Viewers Trump ‘Not Really All That Different’ From Them
House Republican Calls for Bondi to Testify Over Epstein Files ‘Failure to Comply’
Federal Officer Who Shot Renee Good ‘In Hiding’: Report
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