Spicer: Behar’s comments about Pence’s faith ‘despicable’

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer slammed “The View” co-host Joy Behar on Friday for her comments about Vice President Pence related to his Christian beliefs.

In an interview on Fox News’s “Hannity,” Spicer said that Behar’s comments were “despicable” and particularly outrageous due to the ongoing Christian season of Lent.

Behar commented earlier this week on reports that Pence thinks Jesus “talks” to him.

“That’s called mental illness if I’m not correct. That’s hearing voices,” she said on “The View.”

Spicer said Behar was insulting Pence’s faith.

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“We talk a lot about the president, but I think that Joy Behar’s attack on the vice president’s Christianity and faith is just despicable during this holy season of Lent,” Spicer told host Sean Hannity.

“But I think what’s even more despicable is the fact that no one in the media found it deplorable that she went and did that. In fact, it was the vice president who had to respond himself, and defend himself without having any other member of ‘The View’ or Joy Behar say that was a little over the line.”

“It was a lot over the line, and I think that was the point,” Hannity responded. “And I just know that if a conservative says one thing, one word, one sentence, one phrase, the reaction is like, ‘Oh, the — the outrage.’ There’s no going back or revising or extending remarks or even apologizing for being wrong if you misstate something.”

Spicer’s comments were in response to remarks Behar made on “The View” on Wednesday that compared the possibility the vice president believes Jesus talks to him with “mental illness.”

“It’s one thing to talk to Jesus,” Behar said. “It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you. That’s called mental illness if I’m not correct. That’s hearing voices.” 

Behar’s comments were based on a claim by former White House aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman on “Celebrity Big Brother.” 

Pence responded to Behar as well on Wednesday, calling her remarks “religious intolerance” supported by the show’s network, ABC.

“It is just simply wrong for ABC to have a television program that expresses that kind of religious intolerance,” Pence said. 

He did not address Manigault-Newman’s claim.

-Updated on Feb. 17 at 1:06 p.m.