September 26, 2011

From The Huffington Post

Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson condemned the booing of a gay servicemember that occurred at Thursday night’s Fox News/Google GOP debate, and he expressed regret for not speaking up at the time.

In an interview with Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC, the former New Mexico governor said the incident — in which a gay soldier serving in Iraq was loudly booed — was “not right” and not representative of the Republican party he belongs to.

“If I have one regret from last evening, it’s that I didn’t stand up and say, you know, you’re booing a U.S. serviceman who is denied being able to express his sexual preference,” he said. “There’s something very, very wrong with that.”

Johnson said he was “chomping at the bit” to respond to the audience, but he was reticent to speak out due to his exclusion from the recent debates. “I’m feeling a little bit like I’m walking on egg shells,” he said.

He told Sharpton he believes the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which went into effect on Sept. 20, should have been done “a long time ago.”

Read the rest of the article here.