UPDATED: Joe Biden selects California Senator Kamala Harris.
Whoever Joe Biden picks to be his running mate, they are probably going to be greeted with bouquets from the liberal press — which of course was hardly the reception Mike Pence received when Donald Trump tapped him to be his veep in 2016.
When he was announced four years ago, the devout Christian was derided by the media as “churchy” (as if that’s a bad thing). His liberal Democratic counterpart Tim Kaine was mis-identified as a “moderate” and a “centrist,” while Pence garnered “staunch conservative” labels.
The attacks on Pence’s faith began when he was Indiana Governor and continued throughout his political career up to his current term as Vice President.
The following are the worst attacks on Vice President Pence from the liberal press and Hollywood elitists:
Does Trump Really Want a “Churchy” Guy on His Ticket?
“Here’s what I think. I think it’s [Indiana Governor] Pence. I think [Mike] Pence is almost horny for the job. It’s clear that he wants it. It’s clear that he thinks it’s his....Can he [Donald Trump] put up with a churchy guy like Pence? Pence is so churchy. I mean, the only thing about Donald Trump, he can say all he wants about religion, he ain’t churchy. That’s one thing he’s not.”
— Host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, July 12, 2016.
Pence Protecting Religious Freedom Just Like Segregation
“What you get is that incredibly awkward stonewalling by [Indiana Governor] Mike Pence yesterday, where he cannot answer a simple question whether or not the state of Indiana should be able to discriminate against gays and lesbians. This puts him in the same position as George Wallace was a generation ago.”
— CNN political analyst and Daily Beast editor John Avlon on CNN’s New Day, March 30, 2015.
Pence = “Dangerous” Christian With “Mental Illness”
Co-host Sunny Hostin: “When you have a Mike Pence, that now sort of puts this religious veneer on things and calls people values voters, I think we’re in a dangerous situation. Look I’m Catholic. I’m a faithful person, but I don’t know that I want my Vice President speaking in tongues and having Jesus speak to him.”...
Co-host Joy Behar: “Like I said before, 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.”
— ABC’s The View, February 13, 2018.
Do You “Talk to God” About Those Who Died Because You Acted Late on Coronavirus?
“When you talk to God in your moments alone, do you find yourself worrying at all that people you represent and care deeply about have died and will die — who did not need to — because of steps the federal government did not take soon enough?”
— Co-host Byron Pitts to Vice President Mike Pence about White House’s coronavirus response as aired on ABC’s Nightline, April 1, 2020.
Pence “Sounds Like” and “Looks Like” a Bigot
“Do not go there, Governor Pence. This is ridiculous. He totally stepped in it. Politically terrible. People are calling him a bigot because it sounds like one and looks like one. I'm sorry.”
— Co-host Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, April 1, 2015.
People Magazine Piles on Pence
“Indiana Governor Mike Pence, 55, sparked outrage on March 26 when he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law. The legislation allows any individual or corporation to refuse service to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals on religious beliefs. ‘Sad this new Indiana law can happen in America today,’ Hillary Clinton tweeted. Miley Cyrus, writing on Instagram, said politics is ‘the only place that has more idiots than Instagram.’”
— In the “Passages” section, under “Controversy,” in the April 13, 2015 edition of People magazine.
Agreeing with Pence = “Premature Intolerance Ejaculation”
“Well, what I find astonishing about it is the way the presidential candidates jumped onto the Pence side immediately: Jindal, Carson, Cruz, and Bush, the front-runner. It was like a premature intolerance ejaculation and, you know, there are pills for that at Walmart....”
— Newsweek national political correspondent Nina Burleigh, formerly a Time magazine reporter, on MSNBC’s The Last Word, April 1, 2015.
Put Pence and His ‘Lunatic Fringe’ In Exile
“And in what would be the biggest threat of all, the NCAA ought to tell Gov. Mike Pence and his lunatic-fringe lawmakers that it no longer feels at home in Indiana and will look at moving its headquarters from Indianapolis to a state where God-given diversity is something to be celebrated rather than feared.”
— USA Today’s Nancy Armour in March 26, 2015 column “NCAA’s moves should be out of Indiana.”
CELEBRITY ATTACKS ON PENCE
Ellen Page’s Rampage Against Pence
“We’ve been told, as we know it, that by 2030, the world as we know it, that’s it….It feels impossible to not to feel this way right now with the President and the Vice President Mike Pence who like wishes I couldn’t be married. Let’s just be clear. The Vice President of America wishes I didn’t have the love with my wife. He wanted to ban that in Indiana. He believes in conversion therapy. He has hurt LGBTQ people so badly as the governor of Indiana....If you are in a position of power and you hate people and you want to cause suffering to them, you go through the trouble, you spend your career trying to cause suffering, what do you think is going to happen? Kids are going to be abused, and they’re going to kill themselves, and people are going to be beaten on the street.”
— Actress Ellen Page on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, January 31, 2019.
Dear Mike Pence...Go to Hell!
“Dear @VP you are a hate mongering, fear based weasel & your biggest irony is that if there was hell, you’d 100% be going there. I hope you go 2 prison 4 crimes against humanity re: the lgbt community, women’s rights & the babies u rip from the arms of parents seeking our help.”
— June 11, 2019 tweet by comedian/actress Sarah Silverman.
Mike Pence is a “Loathsome Swine” But At Least He’s Not Trump
“Mike Pence is a loathsome swine who has every intention of stripping basic rights from most of the country. And he’s blithely complicit in abetting Bannon’s deliberate dissolution of our democracy. Would I prefer he were president instead of the quivering, Tang-sweating, praise-eating, Putin-smooching, laser-pointer-chasing man-brat we have now? Yes. Pence is unethical, but he’s quantifiable. He’s opposable, like a thumb.”
— Filmmaker Joss Whedon in an e-mail sent to Buzzfeed for a March 8, 2017 article on Mike Pence.
