Joe Biden in hot water for calling Mike Pence a 'decent guy'

• Former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday was criticized on social media after calling Vice President Mike Pence a "decent guy."
• Actress and activist Cynthia Nixon in a tweet went after Biden for complimenting "America's most anti-LGBT elected leader."
• Responding directly to Nixon, Biden tweeted, "You're right, Cynthia ... There is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the Vice President."

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who's considering running for president in 2020, is facing criticism after he described Vice President Mike Pence as a "decent guy." 

Speaking on a recent security conference in Munich that both Pence and Biden attended, the former vice president on Thursday said, "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." 

These remarks came as Biden spoke at the Chuck Hagel Forum in Global Leadership at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

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During the Munich Security Conference in February, Pence faced an awkward silence when he stepped up to give a speech, said he brought "greetings" from President Donald Trump, paused for applause, and no one clapped. This was seemingly what Biden was referencing on Thursday. 

As Biden's comments on Pence surfaced, he was swiftly rebuked on social media. 

Cynthia Nixon, the actress and activist who recently ran for governor of New York, in a tweet said, ".@JoeBiden you've just called America's most anti-LGBT elected leader 'a decent guy.' Please consider how this falls on the ears of our community."

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Biden, who's garnered a reputation for being gaffe-prone, responded to Nixon soon after in a tweet, stating, "You're right, Cynthia. 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."

"But there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the Vice President," Biden added.

Pence has long been decried as homophobic over his stances toward LGBTQ people. The vice president, for example, supported conversion therapy. In 2015, Pence gained national attention while governor of Indiana when he signed a religious freedom law that, critics argued, allowed businesses to discriminate against the LGBTQ community.