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WATCH: Donald Trump Still Can't Explain His Marriage Equality Opposition

WATCH: Donald Trump Still Can't Explain His Marriage Equality Opposition

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The top-polling Republican presidential candidate avoided answering a direct question like a political pro.

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Donald Trump is known for his often abrasive, unfiltered commentary, but the Republican presidential hopeful struggled to explain his opposition to marriage equality in a recent interview.

Sitting down with Bloomberg's Mark Halperin and John Heilemann inside Trump Tower Wednesday, the billionaire trotted out his best politician doublespeak to navigate questions about his controversial white supremacist supporters, his favorite Bible verse (it's personal, he says, and he likes the Old and New Testaments equally), and his unabashedly xenophobic ideas about immigration reform and use of the offensive phrase "anchor babies." He also said he would raise taxes on himself.

So when Halperin posed a question that fellow GOP presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich faced about marriage equality during this month's Republican debate, viewers might have expected a similar answer.

"If you had a son or daughter, and I'll expand it for you to a grandchild as well, who was gay or lesbian, how would you explain to them your opposition to same-sex marriage?" Halperin asked.

"Well, it's the way it is," Trump said with a scowl. "I wouldn't speak to them at all about it other than they are who they are and I want them to be happy and will love them and cherish them."

Noting that he "thought Governor Kasich's answer was a very good one," the thrice-married Republican continued:

"He's gone to gay weddings, I've gone to gay weddings. I've been at gay weddings. I have been against [marriage equality] from the standpoint of Bible, from the standpoint of my teachings as growing up and going to Sunday school and going to church, and I've been opposed to it and we'll just see how it all comes out."

"If I was ever in that position, I'd just have to explain it," Trump concluded, implying that he had not in fact answered the question Halperin had posed.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporterpublished last weekend, Trump acknowledged that efforts to overturn the Supreme Court's landmark pro-marriage equality ruling are basically dead on arrival.

"Some people have hopes of passing amendments, but it's not going to happen," Trump told the Reporter. "Congress can't pass simple things, let alone that. So anybody that's making that an issue is doing it for political reasons. The Supreme Court ruled on it."

In June, out, married actor George Takei reflected on a lunch he had with Trump, where the pair discussed Trump's dogged opposition to marriage equality. Noting that Trump told him he had just come from a same-sex wedding, Takei concluded that "Donald Trump's interpretation of marriage is something that he himself doesn't really believe in."

Watch the full interview below, with the discussion of marriage equality beginning just after the six-minute mark.

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Sunnivie Brydum

Sunnivie is the managing editor of The Advocate, and an award-winning journalist whose passion is covering the politics of equality and elevating the unheard stories of our community. Originally from Colorado, she and her spouse now live in Los Angeles, along with their three fur-children: dogs Luna and Cassie Doodle, and "Meow Button" Tilly.
Sunnivie is the managing editor of The Advocate, and an award-winning journalist whose passion is covering the politics of equality and elevating the unheard stories of our community. Originally from Colorado, she and her spouse now live in Los Angeles, along with their three fur-children: dogs Luna and Cassie Doodle, and "Meow Button" Tilly.