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CNN Edits Clip Of Ted Cruz Saying Gay Marriage Ruling Was ‘Clearly Wrong,’ Left Out What He Said Next

[Screenshot/Verdict with Ted Cruz]

Nicole Silverio Media Reporter
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CNN excluded a portion of a clip Monday in which Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz outlined the consequences of overturning the right to same-sex marriage.

Cruz admitted during Friday’s episode of “The Verdict with Ted Cruz” that he believed the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges was “clearly wrong” based on the Court telling states they must legalize same-sex marriage. “CNN Newsroom” played a 16-second clip of his statement further calling the decision “overreaching.”

Former deputy assistant attorney general Harry Litman told “CNN Newsroom” that the Court will have no other choice but to revisit the question of whether same-sex marriage is protected under the Constitution due to 35 states having laws outlawing or restricting gay marriage and two justices on the Court believing the case was wrongly decided.

“I think it’s a very good illustration that we’ve got a lot more storms in the future even though the Court says, maybe sincerely, this was just about Roe,” Litman said.

A “CNN New Day” segment also clipped the segment of Cruz discussing same-sex marriage, prompting CNN political commentator Margaret Hoover to accuse the senator of “pandering” to the bigots. (RELATED: MSNBC Analyst Claims Supreme Court Will Bring Back Segregation)

“Let’s just be reminded that Ted Cruz is pandering not just to the base of the Republican Party, but to the kind of bigotry in the Republican Party. And what we know is the Texas GOP has just passed its planks saying that being gay is abnormal,” Hoover said. “All of this is circular inanity and pandering to the bigots.”

In the full clip, Cruz quoted Associate Justice Samuel Alito arguing in the majority opinion for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that Roe v. Wade is unique to other rights granted under the 14th Amendment due to abortion terminating the life of an unborn child.

“I agree with that proposition,” Cruz said.

The senator explained if the Court is considering overturning a precedent, they rely on a “reliance interest,” which pertains to whether the law has followed this precedent accordingly. He said the Court does not seemingly have “any appetite” for overturning Obergefell.

“In the context of marriage, you’ve got a ton of people who have entered into gay marriages and it would be more than a little chaotic for the Court to do something that somehow disrupted those marriages that have been entered into in accordance with the law,” he said. “I think that would be a factor that would counsel restraint, that the Court would be concerned about. But to be honest, I don’t think this Court has any appetite for overturning any of these decisions.”

Cruz said Associate Justice Clarence Thomas was being a “purist” in his interpretation of the Constitution after he proposed reconsidering the decision in Obergefell, plus Lawrence v. Texas and Griswold v. Connecticut which legalized homosexuality and contraception.

He then argued that while Roe v. Wade caused major divisions throughout the country, same-sex marriage has not caused the same amount of “unworkability” problems or resistance.

“Roe spawned the pro-life movement, it spawned 50 years of deep political division because the people lacked the ability to defend life through the political process,” he said. “Gay marriage, there had been a vibrant political movement to protect marriage, to defend traditional marriage as the union of one man and one woman. That was on the ballot in many places in the country… that being said, since Obergefell there is not a massive political movement seeking to unwind it in the way that there was with Roe.”