After Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he would support Texas county clerks’ ability to deny marriage licenses to gay couples on religious grounds, “Today Show” co-host Savannah Guthrie pressed the presidential candidate on the difference between gay marriage and interracial marriage.

“If a state clerk refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple, would you agree with that too?” she asked Cruz on Monday morning, noting that people who once objected to interracial marriage used religion to support their beliefs.

“There’s no religious backing for that,” Cruz responded.

Guthrie then asked Cruz whether interracial marriage should be a state issue, even though the Supreme Court ruled that interracial marriage bans are unconstitutional.

“Of course not,’ Cruz answered. “We fought a bloody civil war over the original sin of our country, that was slavery. Slavery was grotesque and immoral and some 600,000 Americans lost their lives, spilled their blood on American soil to expunge it.”

He said that the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments honored “the promise of the Constitution.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Sunday told the state’s county clerks that they can refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay couples if they object to same-sex marriage for religious reasons.

Watch the interview via NBC: