Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson calls gay marriage 'evil,' 'sinful' during Ted Cruz event

On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump wooed evangelicals across the state on Sunday, with Trump and Jerry Falwell Jr. campaigning in Council Bluffs and Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson introducing Cruz at an event in Iowa City.

Robertson said Cruz has his support because he "loves God, he loves James Madison, and he's a strict constitutionalist." He decried what he called a "spiritual problem" in the United States, and launched into a diatribe against gay marriage. "When a fellow like me looks at the landscape and sees the depravity, the perversion — redefining marriage and telling us that marriage is not between a man and a woman? Come on Iowa! It is nonsense. It is evil. It's sinful. They want us to swallow it, you say. We have to run this bunch out of Washington, D.C. We have to rid the earth of them. Get them out of there."

Once Cruz took the stage, he called Robertson a "voice of truth" and an "extraordinary human being," adding, "Listen, God makes every one of us unique, but some are uniquer than others."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up