Former Vice President Joe Biden cheekily asked God for forgiveness over the weekend for failing to speak out against President Donald Trump sooner.
While delivering an address in Washington, D.C., during the left-leaning Human Rights Campaign’s annual gala, Biden explained he and former President Barack Obama “agreed we would be quiet for the first year to let the new administration get up and running.”
As the audience began to grumble and giggle, the former vice president quipped, “God forgive me.”
Biden also voiced regret for not speaking out in support of same-sex marriage sooner, telling the crowd gathered in D.C. that his advocacy came “very late.”
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The 75-year-old politician’s decision in 2012 to publicly support gay marriage caused some uproar. During an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Biden told then-host David Gregory he’s “absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same, exact rights.”
Biden’s endorsement of the legalization of same-sex marriage prompted the sitting president, Obama, who hadn’t take a position on the issue and was in 2008 opposed to it, to voice his support for gay marriage.
When he agreed in 2008 to join Obama’s campaign, Biden recalled, he told the then-candidate’s staff he “would not affirmatively make the case” for gay marriage, but made clear he “would not remain silent” if he was asked to take a position on the matter.
Biden has not yet announced if he plans to run for president in 2020.