msnbc   |  March 18, 2013

Clinton backs gay marriage

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was featured in a human rights campaign ad, showing her support for marriage equality. NBC’s Mark Murray reports.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> going to bring you much more on the breaking news that we brought you at the top of the hour concerning former secretary of state hillary clinton making her first big move since leafing her post. and it's in support of marriage equality .

>> lbgt americans are our colleagues, our teachers, our soldiers, our friends, our loved ones. and they are full and equal citizens and deserve the rights of citizenship. that includes marriage. that's why i support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. i support it personally and as a matter of policy and law.

>> so the human rights campaign time ago features mrs. clinton saying gays and lesbians deserve the right of marriage. nbc political editor mike murray joins me from washington. mike i just got an e-mail from mike griffin saying make sure we notice how hillary clinton says this is a matter of policy and law. and president clinton came out striking down doma. and this comes back to the logic step-taking on marriage equality .

>> thomas, it's not surprising that hillary clinton did this. but not only is the cover on the move for gay marriage in the next four or five years but also we haven't seen hillary clinton on the political stage in the last four or five years and that's is why she never communicated on the matter. consistent with barack obama when he was campaigning. of course, barack obama made his shift during the 2012 presidential campaign . now, we're seeing hillary clinton make her shift. and it does end up stoking some type of speculation that this might be all apparent to lay the ground work for a potential 2016 bid.

>> from a strategy standpoint, why do you think this was done in connection with the hrc, as opposed to that website. i don't know if it's up yet, with regard to collecting e-mail, but the website that they fired up?

>> it just comes after rob portman made his news and support for gay marriage . he's the republican senator. but if hillary clinton does want to become president she would need to support gay marriage .

>> mark, thank you.