Last night’s Republican debate featured a question about gays in the military from Keith Kerr, a retired brigadier general who says he is gay. Shockingly, none of the candidates seemed to be in favor of changing the current “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. But for some reason Anderson Cooper decided to beat this dead horse, so he called on Kerr — who was in the audience — and Kerr restated the same question. Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!. He got the same answer.

And that predictable exchange would have been lost in the debate shuffle except that it turns out the gay general has a Clinton connection. CNN explains:

Following the debate, CNN learned that Kerr was listed as a member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Americans For Hillary Clinton Steering Committee.

CNN Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of the debate, David Bohrman, says, “We regret this, and apologize to the Republican candidates. We never would have used the General’s question had we known that he was connected to any presidential candidate.”

Prior to the debate, CNN had verified his military background and that he had not contributed any money to any presidential candidate.

Following the debate, Kerr told CNN that he’s done no work for the Clinton campaign. He says he is a member of the Log Cabin Republicans and was representing no one other than himself.”

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The Clinton campaign has posted a clip of General Kerr’s interview this morning on CNN. Kerr says that although he allowed his name to be listed by the Clinton committee, he has no role in the campaign and no one from the Clinton campaign has been in touch with him.