Donald Trump ‘once joked that Mike Pence wants to hang all gay people’
By Will Stroude
Donald Trump once joked that US Vice President Mike Pence “wants to hang” all gay people, according to new claims. The US President allegedly made the remark during a conversation with a legal scholar in which he discussed his second-in-command’s views on a range of social issues including abortion and LGBT rights. In an article published in The New Yorker entitled ‘The Danger of President Pence’, journalist Jane Mayer says the her source informed her that when the conversation turned to gay rights, Trump motioned towards Pence and joked, “‘Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!'” Pence, an ultra- conservative Christian fundamentalist and former governor of Indiana, is a staunch opponent of LGBT equality. During the course of his political career, he has expressing opposition to anti-LGBT discrimination legislation, equal marriage, civil unions, gay serving in the military, and even federal money being used to support LGBT organisations. The claims come just days Donald Trump became the first sitting President to speak at a notorious anti-gay conference Values Voter Summit; an event held by the listed anti-LGBT hate group Family Research Council. Read the full extract from Jane Meyer’s New Yorker article below:
A staff member from Trump’s campaign recalls him mocking Pence’s religiosity. He said that, when people met with Trump after stopping by Pence’s office, Trump would ask them, “Did Mike make you pray?” Two sources also recalled Trump needling Pence about his views on abortion and homosexuality. During a meeting with a legal scholar, Trump belittled Pence’s determination to overturn Roe v. Wade. The legal scholar had said that, if the Supreme Court did so, many states would likely legalize abortion on their own. “You see?” Trump asked Pence. “You’ve wasted all this time and energy on it, and it’s not going to end abortion anyway.” When the conversation turned to gay rights, Trump motioned toward Pence and joked, “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!”
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