“You're not driving me into some ditch here, Chris,” stated John Kasich to Chris Matthews on Thursday evening, after being badgered with repeated questions about his position on gay marriage.
Matthews started his interrogation by asking Kasich what he thought about the topic since, according to Matthews, there were a lot of Republicans in New York who are not socially conservative. Kasich responded by saying he believed in traditional marriage between a man and woman, but there needed to be a balance: “There is a conflict to some degree between people practicing their deeply held religious beliefs, which they have a right to do, and the issue of discrimination against somebody that they think is doing something inappropriate. That has to be balanced.”
It did not seem like Matthews found that answer to be satisfactory since the host ratcheted up the attacks. “Do you tolerate same sex marriage?… Do you tolerate it,” Matthews pressured. Kasich defended himself by pointing out the fact that he attended a gay wedding and the couple knew how he felt. This ability to both attend a gay wedding while still believing in traditional marriage perplexed the ultra-liberal Matthews.