Vice President Mike Pence was not pleased with a segment on ABC’s The View on Tuesday, when co-host Joy Behar reacted to comments made by Omarosa Manigault about Pence’s religiosity on an episode of CBS’ Celebrity Big Brother. Talking to her castmates about Pence, Manigault said, “He’s extreme. … He thinks Jesus tells him to say things.”
“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. Hearing voices.” Her comment, which drew laughs from the audience, was part of a larger and more serious conversation among the show’s co-hosts about the mixing of religion and politics.
Pence was asked to respond to Behar’s comments in an onstage interview with Axios on Wednesday. “I actually heard that ABC has a program that compared my Christianity to mental illness,” Pence said. “And I’d like to laugh about it, but I really can’t.”
He continued: “I have to tell you — to have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong. And it’s an insult, not to me, but to the vast majority of the American people who, like me, cherish their faith. My Christianity is the most important thing in my life.”
Pence said that Behar’s comment “demonstrates how out of touch some in the mainstream media are with the faith and values of the American people.” He added, “It’s just simply wrong for ABC to have a television program that expresses that kind of religious intolerance. We’re better than that.”
Later in the segment, Behar had clarified that she doesn’t actually think Pence is mentally ill.
