Liberals are flipping out at Vice President Mike Pence—because he’s respectful to his wife.

The controversy comes from a 2002 interview, where Pence explained how he stays faithful to Second Lady Karen Pence when he’s out of town.

The article explains that Pence “never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won’t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side.”

“If there’s alcohol being served and people are being loose, I want to have the best-looking brunette in the room standing next to me,” Pence told a reporter with The Hill, at the time.

“It’s about building a zone around your marriage,” Pence explained. “I don’t think [Washington, DC, is] a predatory town, but I think you can inadvertently send the wrong message by being in [certain] situations.”

It’s not clear if now, fifteen years later, Pence still adheres to his dining rule. But, regardless, liberals on Twitter went nuclear on Pence’s “sexism.”

“Indicative of notion that women are primarily sexual temptresses,” wrote one Twitter user. “Also means Pence cannot have a working relationship w/ any women.”
“If Pence won’t eat with a woman alone, how could a woman be Chief of Staff, or lawyer, campaign manager, or…” tweeted Clara Jeffrey, of Mother Jones, even though Pence’s first Lieutenant Governor in Indiana was a woman, Sue Ellspermann.

“VP can’t be alone in a room with a woman, but he can decide the vote on our healthcare,” tweeted another user. “Wow.”

However, some were more nuanced, like Nate Cohn of The New York Times, who wrote: “The response to Pence’s unwillingness to be alone with women is, from my POV, the most surprising and eye-opening cultural divide in a while.”

Regardless, the debate continues to rage on, as to whether Pence is being chivalrous and respectful to his wife, or sexist to other women.