“The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin warned her co-hosts that they sounded like “snowflakes” when they criticized former President Mike Pence’s joke about Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Pence made a joke at the annual Gridiron Dinner Saturday night about Buttigieg taking “maternity leave” after he and his husband Chasten adopted twins in 2021. The co-hosts lamented the joke and made accusations that it was insensitive and “homophobic.”
“Pence has been a champion of paid family leave and I think that was an issue for me for it [the joke] not landing,” Griffin said. “But I do want us to be careful, I don’t want us to turn into the snowflakes that we criticize, it’s a joke.”
“Hold up, hold up,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg interjected. “Those guys are snowflakes, but the point is it’s a joke that was bad four other times. It didn’t work for anybody, it was a terrible joke and for me, that’s lazy because he does know better. He does know what the correct words are, and you want to make a joke, you can do that but when you go to something lazy that hasn’t worked, and then you pretend and then we’re trying to figure out what you’re doing because you’re saying something finally we’re thrilled to hear you say, it just makes me think you’re too confusing for me.”
Co-host Joy Behar said Pence cannot make that joke because of his alleged “homophobic history,” but the joke itself is not the problem. Goldberg then reiterated that the joke “was terrible.” (RELATED: Pence Spokesperson Hits Back At Jean-Pierre For Accusing Former VP Of Making A ‘Homophobic’ Joke)
“The joke was terrible!” she yelled. “The joke was terrible.”
“He needs a joke writer,” Behar said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told The Washington Blade, a pro-LGBTQ outlet, that the joke was “homophobic” and “offensive.” Pence’s spokesperson, Marc Short, said Monday that the White House should “drop the faux outrage” over the joke.
Pence attended the event alongside Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who all made humorous jokes to follow the dinner’s traditions.