Before President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, the White House played footage of the Meet the Press interview in which he first came out in favor of same-sex marriage.
Biden referenced the television appearance in his own remarks at the signing ceremony. “Ten years ago, I got into trouble,” he said. He was vice president at the time, and he had endorsed gay marriage before then-President Barack Obama.
The White House did not play any footage of another Biden Meet the Press interview from 2006. “Marriage is between a man and a woman, and states must respect that,” he said.
In fact, the White House has airbrushed the first interview out of history. “And he said something that, really, no other national elected official was saying at the time: that marriage is a proposition,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of the later Meet the Press interview. “And it's about, you know, who you love, but if you are going — I'm going to mess up his quote — but who you love, but also about if you're going to be loyal to that person.”