Hurd wishes GOP would 'focus on war criminals' like Putin, 'not my friends in the LGBTQ community'

GOP presidential candidate Will Hurd said Sunday that he wishes Republicans would turn their focus away from "my friends in the LGBTQ community" to other issues.

"A lot of your Republican opponents are making LGBTQ rights a cultural flash point. ... What's your message to them?" host Dana Bash asked on CNN's "State of the Union."

“Well, my message is, I wish they would focus and focus their attacks on war criminals like Vladimir Putin, not my friends in the LGBTQ community. It is 2023. We should be talking about, how do we embrace our differences?" Hurd said.

The presidental hopeful's comments come after the Supreme Court last week issued several controversial decisions, including ruling that a Colorado-based Christian web designer, may legally refuse services to LGBTQ people because it violated the First Amedment.

"This decision-makes me uncomfortable because we're protecting speech that I don't agree with. And I don't agree personally with an anti-LGBTQ sentiment ... but we have to be protecting the speech even if we don't like or agree with that speech. That's a foundational element in our country," Hurd said of the case on Sunday.

Hurd noted "a new cold war" with Beijing and rapidly developing artificial intelligence technology among the other issues "we should be talking about."

"We're better together. And we should be having our leaders that are encouraging that, that are protecting that, in order -- how we use our diversity to solve the major problems that we're facing," he said.

Hurd entered the GOP's 2024 presidential primary last month, getting in the race with former President Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and a number of others.