Tapper asked.

"My feelings about this are constantly evolving," Obama replied. "I struggle with this. I have friends, I have people who work for me who are in powerful, strong, long-lasting gay or lesbian unions and they are extraordinary people. And this is something that means a lot to them and they care deeply about."

"At this point, what I've said is that my baseline is a strong civil union that provides them the protections and the legal rights that married couples have and I think that's the right thing to do," he added.

"But I recognize that from their perspective it is not enough. I think we are going to continue to debate and I personally am going to continue to wrestle with going forward," Obama said.

"It's good to hear his views are not solidly where they have been, but he's still not there on marriage," Brian Moulton, chief legislative counsel of the Human Rights Campaign, told The Washington Post.