Bobby Jindal in Meet the Press interviews during 2015

On Principles & Values: Uncompromising GOP leadership in DC to make real change

I want to run a campaign where we embrace our principles, establishment Republicans don't want us to do that. Jeb Bush says, "We've got to be willing to lose the primary in order to win the general election." I strongly disagree with that. What some of those Republicans are saying is we've got to hide who we are. Nonsense. We don't just need to send a Republican to D.C., we need to send somebody who will take on the conventional wisdom. Republicans in D.C. say you cannot repeal ObamaCare. That you cannot shrink the federal government. You cannot balance the budget. You cannot do term limits. Well, if we don't do that, we're done. We can own this next century if we actually implement conservative reforms. I'm not running to manage the decline of this great country. I'm running to make real changes in D.C. Source: Meet the Press 2015 interviews of 2016 presidential hopefuls Jun 28, 2015

On Principles & Values: We must stop viewing ourselves as being separated by race

I'm glad that America has moved towards a much better view on race relations. I've said we need to stop viewing ourselves as hyphenated Americans, we're not African Americans or Indian Americans, we're all Americans. I think viewing people by the color of their skin is one of the dumbest ways to view people. Source: Meet the Press 2015 interviews of 2016 presidential hopefuls Jun 28, 2015

On Civil Rights: Ok to deny services to gays based on religious beliefs

Q: What about the right of businesses to not serve gay customers?

JINDAL: This is about business owners that don't want to have to choose between their Christian faith, and being able to operate their businesses. What they don't want is the government to force them to participate in wedding ceremonies that contradict their beliefs. I was disappointed [that the law was overturned] in Indiana.

Q: So it's OK based on religious conviction for a business to deny services to a same-sex couple?

JINDAL: JINDAL: We're not talking about day-to-day routine commercial transactions. We're talking about a very specific example here of business owners--florists, musicians, caterers--who are being forced to either pay thousands or close their businesses if they don't want to participate in a wedding ceremony that contradicts their religious beliefs. So in that instance, yeah, I think part of the First Amendment means that we allow individuals to obey their conscience, to obey their religious beliefs.

Source: Meet the Press 2015 interviews of 2016 presidential hopefuls Apr 5, 2015

On Civil Rights: Let's have religious liberty without anti-gay discrimination

Q: [There is a Louisiana] bill that would allow private businesses to refuse to recognize same-sex marriage, should it become legal in Louisiana. The legislation would allow a private company to not offer the same benefits to legally recognized same-sex married couples as other married couples. So this is the beyond just denying services as a business. This would be also denying benefits to an employee who happens to be in a same-sex marriage. Would you support a bill that does that?

JINDAL: Look, let me see the details of the bill. I am, in general though, very supportive other defending religious liberty. And I think we can do that without condoning discrimination. I don't think those two values are mutually exclusive. And I think that's what this debate has been really about. I think we can have religious liberty without having discrimination. I think it's possible to have both. And it's desirable to have both in our society.

Source: Meet the Press 2015 interviews of 2016 presidential hopefuls Apr 5, 2015

The above quotations are from Meet the Press interviews during 2015 (David Gregory interviewing candidates for 2015 and 2016 races). Click here for other excerpts from Meet the Press interviews during 2015 (David Gregory interviewing candidates for 2015 and 2016 races). Click here for other excerpts by Bobby Jindal. Click here for a profile of Bobby Jindal.
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Page last updated: Feb 13, 2019