Disney CEO Bob Iger has told shareholders that The View co-host Joy Behar personally apologized to Vice President Mike Pence for poking fun at the vice president’s Christian beliefs.
While discussing the fact that Pence believes that Jesus talks to him during the episode of The View that aired on February 13, show co-host Sunny Hostin said: ‘I don’t know that I want my vice president, um — speaking in tongues and having Jesus speak to him.’
‘It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you,’ Behar said.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said that The View co-host Joy Behar (pictured) called VP Mike Pence to personally apologize for statements she made on-air likening his faith to mental illness
Behar then went on to note that hearing voices from above is a ‘mental illness’ —hearing voices is a symptom of schizophrenia — and jokingly asked, ‘Can he talk to Mary Magdalene without his wife in the room?,’ a reference to the fact that Pence once said that he never breaks bread with a woman unless his wife is at the table with him.
Pence took umbrage at Behar’s ‘mental illness’ statement and lashed out at Disney-owned ABC.
‘To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong,’ Pence said during an appearance on C-SPAN after The View episode aired. ‘It is simply wrong for ABC to have a television program that expresses that kind of religious intolerance.’
During the Q&A portion of Thursday’s shareholder meeting, Iger was asked about Behar’s remarks by an employee of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank.
Mike Pence took issue with Behar’s words and lambasted Disney-owned ABC for being hospitable to ‘that kind of religious intolerance’
Bob Iger said during the shareholders’ Q&A that he thought Behar’s apology was ‘absolutely appropriate’ and admitted that he himself took ‘exception’ to what she said
‘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?’ National Center for Public Policy Research general counsel Justin Danhof asked, according to Fox News.
‘Specifically, do you think, like Mrs. Hostin and Mrs. Behar, that the Christian faith is akin to a dangerous mental illness?’
In response, Iger said that Behar had ‘apologized to Vice President Pence directly. She made a call to him and apologized, which I thought was absolutely appropriate.’
Iger also noted that he personally took ‘exception’ to her words and added that, ‘I don’t think it was right.’
Behar’s ‘mental illness’ remark caught the attention of The Media Research Center, a conservative content analysis organization, which urged viewers to call ABC to lodge complaints about ‘anti-Christian bigotry.’ The network reportedly received 30,000 phone calls.