Rick Santorum: I Never Attempted To Impose My Views On Gay Rights

Rick Santorum on Sunday argued that he has never attempted to impose his conservatives views on others.

During a segment on NBC's Meet The Press, host David Gregory asked Santorum if as president he would act on his beliefs on issues such as abortion and gay marriage.

Santorum blamed the media for creating the false notion that he is focused on social issues.

“Senator, you know, wait a minute,” Gregory interrupted. “You talk about this stuff every week. And by the way, it's not just in this campaign. Sir in this campaign, you talk about it, and I've gone back years when you've been in public life and you have made this a centerpiece of your public life. So the notion that these are not deeply held views worthy of question and scrutiny – it's not just about the press.”

“Yeah, they are deeply held views, but they're not what I dominantly talk about, David. You're taking things that over a course of a 20-year career, and pulling out quotes from different speeches on issues that are fairly tangential, not what people care about mostly in America, and saying, 'Oh, he wants to impose those values.' Look at my record. I never wanted to impose any of the things that you just talked about.”

“There is no evidence at all that I want to impose those values on anybody else,” he added.

Last month, Santorum told CNN host Piers Morgan that he would as president outlaw gay marriage.

“I would change the law to make a uniform definition of marriage in this country,” he said.

And while in the Senate, Santorum voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and twice in favor of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution which would define marriage as a heterosexual union.