Vice President Pence says he’s urging “The View” co-host Joy Behar to apologize to “tens of millions of Americans who were equally offended” for recent remarks she made about him in which she said that if you hear Jesus talking to you, it’s a sign of mental illness.
“I give Joy Behar a lot of credit. She picked up the phone. She called me,” Pence told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview set to air Monday night on the network. “She was very sincere, and she apologized, and one of the things my faith teaches me is grace; forgive as you’ve been forgiven,” he added.
“So does mine, but I’m not as good at it as you,” Hannity remarked.
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“Look, but I said to Joy: ‘Of course, I forgive you.’ That’s part of my faith experience,” Pence replied. “But I did encourage her, and I’m still encouraging her, to use the forum of that program or some other public forum, to apologize to tens of millions of Americans who were equally offended.”
The controversial remarks were made on “The View” by Behar on Feb. 13.
“I don’t know that I want my vice president, um — speaking in tongues and having Jesus speak to him,” co-host Sunny Hostin said.
“It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you,” added Behar. “That’s called mental illness, if I’m not correct. Hearing voices.”
Pence criticized Behar’s comments a day later.
“To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong,” Pence told C-SPAN. “It is simply wrong for ABC to have a television program that expresses that kind of religious intolerance.”
The controversy took another turn last Thursday when Disney CEO Bob Iger, in an address to a shareholder meeting in Houston, said that Behar had apologized “for things she has said about Christians and the Trump administration,” according to multiple media reports.