Joy Behar apologized on Tuesday to millions of Americans whom she potentially offended when she said on “The View” last month that it’s essentially “mental illness” to believe that “Jesus talks to you.”
“I think Vice President Pence is right. I was raised to respect everyone’s religious faith, and I fell short of that,” Behar said on “The View” on Tuesday. “I sincerely apologize for what I said.”
Watch her remarks below:
.@JoyVBehar: “I think Vice Pres. Pence is right. I was raised to respect everyone's religious faith, and I fell short of that. I sincerely apologize for what I said.” pic.twitter.com/lhiYHdPlxK
— The View (@TheView) March 13, 2018
Behar’s apology came after Pence told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Behar had called him to apologize and that he encouraged her to also say she is sorry to the public.
“I give Joy Behar a lot of credit. She picked up the phone, she called me, she was very sincere and she apologized,” Pence said. “One of the things my faith teaches me is grace. Forgive as you’ve been forgiven.”
As Faithwire previously reported, news of a phone conversation between Behar and Pence first emerged last week when Justin Danhof, a Disney shareholder, asked Disney head Bob Iger about claims that ABC, the network “The View” airs on, and other Disney properties seem to have a pattern of going after conservatives and religious Americans.
“What do you say to the tens of millions of Christians, and President Trump supporters, that your networks have so blatantly offended and ascribed hateful labels?” Danhof, who is also an attorney for the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, asked. “Specifically, do you think, like Mrs. Hostin and Mrs. Behar, that the Christian faith is akin to a dangerous mental illness?”
Iger noted that Behar had apologized to Pence and Behar’s manager, Bill Stankey, later confirmed that the two talked.
“Yes, she did speak to Vice President Pence, they had a great, very nice conversation,” Stankey told The Washington Post. “The vice president was very gracious and very understanding. He understood that Joy wasn’t attacking anybody and that there was some miscommunication.”
A White House source said, though, that Behar didn’t seem to frame her comments as any sort of miscommunication, and that she apologized to Pence. As of late last month, Behar was framing her remarks as a mere joke, but she now has clearly changed course.
Her initial comments came during a conversation on “The View” in early February about Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former “Apprentice” star who briefly became a White House staffer before reportedly being terminated.
Newman made waves when she uttered some shocking comments about Pence’s Christian faith.
“As bad as y’all think Trump is, you should be worried about Pence,” she said on CBS’ “Big Brother: Celebrity Edition,” a reality TV show she appeared on after her White House stint. “Everybody that’s wishing for impeachment might want to reconsider their life. We would be begging for days of Trump if Pence became president, that’s all I’m saying. He’s extreme.”
To explain that purported extremity, Newman pointed to Pence’s faith.
“I’m Christian, I love Jesus, but he thinks Jesus tells him to say things,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Jesus didn’t say that.’”
“The View” host Sunny Hostin said that she found Newman’s comments interesting, and launched into her own views on the matter.
“I’m Catholic. I’m a faithful person,” she said. “But I don’t know that I want my vice-president … speaking in tongues and having Jesus speak to him.”
And Behar took things to another level, invoking mental illness in the discussion about Pence’s purported conversations with Jesus.
“It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you,” she said. “That’s called mental illness, if I’m not correct. Hearing voices.”
Watch the original clip below:
Sherri Shepard jumped in at that point to correct Behar and to explain how — through a Christian lens — conversations and prayers to Jesus actually work.
“As a Christian, that’s just par for the course. You talk to Jesus, Jesus talks back,” she said, before adding: “What concerns me is, how long is the conversation with Jesus?”
It should be noted, once again, that these comments were all based on Newman’s proclamation on a reality show, not on a specific Pence quote that the hosts are hammering. Prior to Behar’s apology, Pence had lashed out against her claims.
“It’s 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,” he said. “My Christianity is the most important thing in my life.”
It’s nice to see the drama finally coming to a close, with an apology being offered — and accepted.