Vice President Mike Pence, in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, said that The View co-host Joy Behar called him and apologized for a comment she made last month that some construed as a dig on his faith.
“You know, I give Joy Behar a lot of credit,” Pence told Hannity in the interview, which will air Monday night. “She picked up the phone. She called me. She was very sincere, and she apologized, and one of the things my faith teaches me is grace — forgive as you’ve been forgiven.”
The brouhaha began exactly one month ago. During a View segment on Omarosa Manigault Newman’s comments about Pence and his religiosity, made while taping Celebrity Big Brother, Behar joked: “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.”
Pence did not appreciate Behar’s remark, and used an onstage interview with Axios a day later to criticize her for what he called a religious “insult.”
“You and I know that criticism comes with public life,” Pence explained to Hannity. “But I felt it was important that I defend the faith of tens of millions of Americans against that kind of slander.”
Pence said he accepted Behar’s apology and asked her to make a broader one. “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,” he added.
A day after her initial joke, Behar attempted to clarify her comments on the air. Last week, Disney CEO Bob Iger told company shareholders that Behar had called Pence to apologize.
