White House denies claims Donald Trump ‘joked about Mike Pence wanting to hang all gay people’
NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 09: Republican president-elect Donald Trump acknowledges the crowd as Vice president-elect Mike Pence looks on during his election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown in the early morning hours of November 9, 2016 in New York City. Donald Trump defeated Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to become the 45th president of the United States. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
The White House has hit back at allegations President Trump joked about Mike Pence wanting to hang gay people.
Officials have dismissed the reports claiming they are “unsubstantiated”.
According to an article in New Yorker on Monday, the comments were made in a meeting between Trump, Pence and a legal scholar.
Trump’s second-in-command – and next-in-line for the presidency, should Trump be impeached – is the most homophobic politician to hold such a high office in recent history.
Pence, a hardline evangelical who has not supported a single LGBT reform across nearly two decades in politics, has one of the worst records on equality of any President or Vice President in living memory.
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However a representative for the Vice President, Alyssa Farah, disputed the claims in an interview with the Indianapolis Star.
She says the claims are, “filled with unsubstantiated, unsourced claims that are untrue and offensive.”
In the meeting between Trump, the Vice President and a legal scholar, The New Yorker reported that conversation turned to LGBT rights.
“Don’t ask that guy,” said the leader of the free world, according to the claims, adding, “He wants to hang them all!”
The President also made fun of his number two’s anti-abortion quest to overturn Roe v Wade.
RELATED: Trump tells anti-LGBT hate group they will ‘no longer be silenced’
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Earlier this year, Pence pledged Trump’s “unwavering” support to Focus on the Family, an anti-LGBT religious group which the Southern Poverty Law Centre has named a hate group.
And he has previously suggested that HIV prevention funding be drained in order to fund state-sponsored ‘gay cure’ therapy.
Pence sparked international outrage last year when he signed Indiana’s controversial ‘Religious Freedom Restoration Act’, giving businesses the right to discriminate against gay people on the grounds of religion.
Last year, he appeared unable to answer when asked whether it should be legal to fire people because of their sexuality.
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And since he’s been in office, officials from the Department of Justice have gone to court to argue that discrimination against gay employees is legal.
Trump’s administration also issued a directive giving the go-ahead for religious businesses to discriminate against LGBT people last week.
Saturday Night Live made fun of Pence’s homophobic views, as Beck Bennett’s version of the Vice President fled a same-sex wedding in sheer panic.
Last week, Trump told attendees at homophobic hate group the Family Research Council that they would no longer be silenced.
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While becoming the first president to address the conference of a recognised anti-LGBT hate group, he repeatedly made outrageous statements.
“We will not allow government workers to censor sermons or target our pastors, our ministers, our rabbis,” he said.
“These are the people we want to hear from and they’re not going to be silenced any longer.”
The President added that he salutes every person serving in the armed force, despite introducing a ban on transgender soldiers serving.
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Speaking alongside Trump at the summit was former Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson, who made shocking comments that he wants to “rid the Earth” of “wicked” gays.
And wasn’t the only anti-gay extremist to speak alongside the 45th president.
Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has said he doesn’t know whether or not gays and lesbians should be put to death, will also be addressing the event.
Moore, now backed by Trump, was recently removed as a state supreme court justice for instructing state employees to ignore the US Supreme Court ruling in favour of marriage equality.
