Story highlights Bondi in 2014 said same-sex marriage in other states would "impose significant public harm" on Florida

"Do you really think you are a champion of the gay community?" CNN's Anderson Cooper asked Bondi

New York (CNN) Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday struggled to reconcile her role in the state's fight against same-sex marriage with her response to the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando.

"Do you really think you are a champion of the gay community?" CNN's Anderson Cooper asked Bondi, telling her that a large portion of the LGBT community in Orlando had told him she was "being a hypocrite."

Bondi in 2014 had argued in court filings that recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states would "impose significant public harm" to the people of Florida.

On Tuesday, she sought to defend those words, telling Cooper she was simply seeking to uphold the state constitution.

"That's what I was defending," she said. "It had nothing to do ... I've never said I don't like gay people. That's ridiculous."

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