"I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties," he said a television interview.
His remarks came as the Obama administration continued to walk a political tightrope over same-sex marriages, with Barack Obama's own position on the issue said by aides to be "evolving".
In a sign of how sensitive an issue gay marriage is for Mr Obama's campaign strategists, gay rights groups initially took Mr Biden's words on NBC's "Meet the Press" as a significant step towards full endorsement, only for senior Obama aides to say the position remained unchanged.
David Axelrod, the Obama campaign chief strategist, clarified on Twitter that Mr Biden had only "precisely" stated Mr Obama's position that "that all married couples should have exactly the same legal rights".
A Biden aide then added further clarification: "The vice president was saying what the president has said previously – that committed and loving same-sex couples deserve the same rights and protections enjoyed by all Americans, and that we oppose any effort to rollback those rights. |