ABC News Exclusive: Christine O'Donnell Stands Her Ground on First Amendment Statement, Blames Media for Distortions

Oct. 21, 2010 -- In an exclusive and far-ranging interview with ABC News, Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell strongly defended her statements on the separation of church and state but expressed regret for her "I'm Not a Witch" ad.

During Tuesday night's debate with Democratic opponent Chris Coons, O'Donnell challenged Coons to show where the Constitution requires separation of church and state, drawing swift criticism from her opponent, laughter from the audience and yet another media firestorm.

"It's really funny the way that the media reports things," she told ABC News. "After that debate my team and I we were literally high fiving each other thinking that we had exposed he doesn't know the First Amendment, and then when we read the reports that said the opposite we were all like 'what?'"

O'Donnell explained her line of questioning to Coons was not because she didn't know the First Amendment, but to the make the point the phrase "separation of church and state" does not appear anywhere in the Constitution. The Supreme Court has interpreted the First Amendment's declaration that Congress "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" as a legal separation between government and faith.

"I asked him where in the Constitution is the phrase 'separation of church and state,'" O'Donnell recounted. "He said the First Amendment. I followed up with, 'Can you name the five freedoms that are guaranteed to us that are protected by the First Amendment?' And he could not."

O'Donnell maintains she in fact got the better of Coons.

The debate controversy is just the latest in a long string of incidents that have launched Christine O'Donnell into the realm of a national celebrity. The darling of Tea Partiers and Sarah Palin, who O'Donnell says is trying to squeeze in a stop to Delaware, she has also been the subject of scorn and mockery.