Joy Behar has formally apologized to Vice President Mike Pence for comparing his Christian beliefs to “mental illness.”
On Tuesday’s episode of The View, the panel played a clip of Pence speaking to Sean Hannity and saying, “I give Joy Behar a lot of credit. She picked up the phone. She called me. She was very sincere, and she apologized.”
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“One of the things my faith teaches me is grace: forgive as you’ve been forgiven,” he added before expressing that he also urged her to use The View as a platform to “apologize to tens of millions of Americans who were equally offended” by her comments.
Following the clip, Behar came on camera and said, “I think Vice President 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,” she told the audience.
Behar’s original comments came back in February when The View co-hosts were discussing some statements that former White House adviser Omarosa Manigault made about the Vice President.
During an episode of Big Brother, Omarosa called Pence “extreme” and added that he “thinks Jesus tells him to say things.”
“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,” Behar said, in response to Omarosa’s comments.
Pence took issue with this and lashed out publicly, saying, “To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong.”
“It is simply wrong for ABC to have a television program that expresses that kind of religious intolerance,” he added.
Pence isn’t the only person that Behar has had issues with lately, as one recent report indicated that a feud between her and Meghan McCain has been heating up.
While the women have denied it, a source close to the show reported that tensions between the two have reached “nuclear levels.”
Things have apparently become worse since Feb. 9 when 75-year-old Behar and 33-year-old McCain exploded on one another while discussing past domestic abuse claims against former White House staff secretary Rob Porter.
“It was like Rosie versus Elizabeth 2.0 without the split screen,” a source told the Daily Mail, referencing an infamous argument that took place on the show between former co-hosts Rosie O’Donnell and Elizabeth Hasselbeck.
“It just escalated out of nowhere and everyone backstage and in the control room totally freaked out initially. If you think it was uncomfortable watching it on TV, imagine being in the studio audience and the staff behind the scenes,” the source added.
Following the on-air spat, both women reportedly returned to their dressing rooms and unleashed about the other to producers.
“I’m sick of Meghan’s bulls—. This s— has to stop. If she doesn’t want to work here let her a— go,” Behar reportedly said before adding, “If I hear her say ‘my father’ one more time on this show, I’m going to puke on live TV.”
The Daily Mail source reports that after the televised squabble, McCain “kept screaming, ‘I can’t believe she said she’s offended by all Republicans. Who does she think she is?’” She also is said to have told The View executives that she feels the show is a toxic environment.
