Santorum: Gays Marrying Is ‘The Breakdown Of Marriage’ (Video)

Rick Santorum is calling for a constitutional amendment banning marriage from same-sex couples.

“I see the issue of gay marriage as really a continuation of the breakdown of marriage,” Rick Santorum told CNN’s Chris Cuomo Tuesday morning. The 2016 Republican presidential candidate who, despite an exceptionally strong performance in his 2012 White House bid is now doing poorly in the polls, is making the marriages of same-sex couples a campaign focus.

On Monday at the Christian Science Monitor Breakfast, Santorum called for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, which officially places him as the most extreme 2016 candidate on the issue of marriage.

“I believe we need a national standard for marriage. I don’t think we can have a standard from one state to another on what marriage is,” Santorum told reporters. He added he wants “to define marriage the way it was defined for 4,000 years of human history,” Bloomberg reported.

Conveniently, Santorum also said proposals from Ted Cruz and Scott Walker, which would allow but not mandate states to ban marriage by same-sex couples are mistakes.

UPDATE: More from today’s interview –
Santorum: Pope’s ‘Who Am I To Judge?’ Means ‘Love The Sinner And Condemn The Sin’ (Video)

“I think that’s a mistake,” Santorum explained. “I argued that 10 years ago when others wanted to do that 10 years ago. You can’t have a hodgepodge of marriage…it just creates too much confusion out there on a variety of different levels.”

“I don’t think we can have a standard from one state to another on what marriage is,” Santorum added, ignoring the fact that the Supreme Court’s decision already rectified that problem.

Salon notes that after the Supreme court ruling, Santorum said that if he is elected president, “he would use the bully pulpit to ‘promote marriage’ in ‘the popular culture and the business community, and have programs that would support the idea of marriage and togetherness in order to raise children. That is the most important thing we can do as a society to lift up marriage as an institution that’s important to the survival of our country.'”

Some responses via Twitter:

 

Image: Screenshot via CNN/Twitter