Newly appointed U.S. Olympic delegate and former secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano sat down with David Gregory on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday to discuss the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. The brief discussion touched on Napolitano's "evolving" views on LGBT rights, but centered on security as a recent series of suicide bombings shook Russia, killing 34 people in December.
After telling Gregory that the U.S. is working closely with both Russia and the International Olympic Committee to assure the safety of the athletes, Napolitano was then asked to comment on the politics of the games, and specifically her views regarding LGBT rights. Napolitano refused to support same-sex marriage when she was DHS secretary, as the governor of Arizona, and while working in the Obama administration before resigning in 2013.
But Sunday, the now-president of the University of California system had this to say:
"Like many in political and elective life in the early part of this century the evolution hadn't occurred, and my statements were very much in that way. This was something that society in a way, the arc of history, as it were, needed to get there, and the arc of history has clearly arrived."
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Napolitano is part of a U.S. group of delegates appointed by President Obama, and made up of several openly gay athletes, including figure skater Brian Boitano and legendary tennis player Billie Jean King.
Watch Napolitano's exchange with Gregory below:
