‘The View’s Joy Behar Apologizes For Mike Pence Mental Illness Remark
The View‘s Joy Behar apologized on-air today for comments she made last month likening Mike Pence’s religious beliefs to mental illness, comments that drew condemnation from the vice president, who called the remark “religious intolerance.”
“I think Vice President Pence is right,” Behar said on today’s episode, looking directly into the camera. “I was raised to respect everyone’s religious faith, and I fell short of that. I sincerely apologize for what I said.” (Watch the apology above.)
The offending remark was made on Feb. 13 during a discussion of the Big Brother episode in which Omarosa Manigault spoke about Pence’s religiosity. In a quip that reportedly drew thousands of angry phone calls, Behar said, “It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you. That’s called mental illness, if I’m not correct, hearing voices.”
Pence later said, “To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong,” and described Behar’s comment as “religious intolerance.”
Behar subsequently phoned the vice president and personally apologized. Last night on Fox News’ Hannity, Pence spoke well of Behar and her apology. (Watch that clip below.)
“I give Joy Behar a lot of credit,” Pence told Sean Hannity. “She picked up the phone. She called me. She was very sincere, and she apologized. One of the things my faith teaches me is grace: forgive as you’ve been forgiven.”
Pence encouraged Behar to also apologize “to tens of millions of Americans who were equally offended.”
Behar did just that on today’s The View, after a brief introduction by show moderator Whoopi Goldberg.
The February incident even was discussed at Disney’s annual shareholder meeting last week, when chairman and CEO Bob Iger addressed the matter during a Q&A session. Behar, Iger said, “apologized to Mike Pence directly, which I thought was the right thing to do. She made a call to him and apologized. … I happen to take exception to what she said. It wasn’t right.”
Watch Behar’s apology above, and Pence’s Hannity comments here:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UlLa9f3jXA&w=605&h=340]
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