Joe Biden takes heat for calling Mike Pence a ‘decent guy’

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has directed sharp criticism at President Trump, invited sharp criticism himself Thursday when he called his successor in the No. 2 office a “decent guy” during a speech in Omaha.

“The fact of the matter is it was followed on by a guy who’s a decent guy, our vice president, who stood before this group of allies and leaders and said, ‘I’m here on behalf of President Trump,’ and there was dead silence. Dead silence,” Biden said of Mike Pence, referring to how the international community reacted to the vice president’s speech at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month.

Liberal activist and actress Cynthia Nixon was quick to take issue with Biden’s description of Pence.

“You’ve just called America’s most anti-LGBT elected leader ‘a decent guy,” she tweeted at Biden. “Please consider how this falls on the ears of our community.”

Biden told Nixon that she was right. “I was making a point in a foreign policy context, that under normal circumstances a Vice President wouldn’t be given a silent reaction on the world stage,” he said.

“But there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the Vice President,” he wrote.

Biden acknowledged in January that his affinity for Republicans has gotten him in hot water with Democrats.

“I get in trouble,” Biden said at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. “I read in the New York Times today that one of my problems is if I were ever to run for president is I like Republicans. OK, well bless me, Father, for I have sinned,” he said as he made the sign of the cross.

Biden is expected to join a growing field of Democratic candidates who are vying to take on Trump in the 2020 election. He revealed earlier this week is family is urging him to run for president.