Republicans Are Criticizing Conservative Tomi Lahren For The Most Ironic Reason
Tomi Lahren is on the hot seat with conservatives, for a very ironic reason.
The 24-year-old political commentator is known for offering opinions that have been criticized, mainly by liberals, as controversial, offensive and provocative.
And yet, the statement that has now put her reputation in an awkward position is a comment many liberals would actually agree with: Women have a right to choose.
On Friday, during an appearance on ABC's "The View," Lahren shared that opinion and said,
I'm pro choice, and here's why. I am a constitutional, you know, someone that loves the Constitution. I'm someone that's for limited government. So I can't sit here and be a hypocrite and say I'm for limited government, but I think the government should decide what women do with their bodies. I can sit here and say that, as a Republican and I can say, you know what, I'm for limited government, so stay out of my guns, and you can stay out of my body as well.
Those comments triggered conservative media figures.
Judging by social media, many Republicans are unimpressed with the host, whose show airs on "The Blaze TV."
Their main gripe? The fact that Lahren had essentially labelled it "hypocritical" for any conservative be against abortion while believing in limited government.
Then there was another issue.
Just three months ago, Lahren had criticized the pro-choice movement by way of hammering Lena Dunham, who in December said she "wishes" she could have had an abortion.
Less than 24 hours after her appearance on "The View" a video illustrating her apparent flip-flop was tweeted by the Twitter account that goes by the name "Reagan Battalion," the same account which exposed Milo Yiannopoulos earlier this year.
On Monday, Lahren's boss publicly commented on the controversy.
The Blaze's founder, former Fox News host Glenn Beck, indicated that he, too, was rubbed the wrong way by what she said.
Beck said on his radio show,
It takes intellectual honesty and it takes a willingness to actually think these things through, rather than just read Twitter or Facebook to get your news or political opinions. You actually have to study these things out with your mind. Bomb-throwing in today's world is dangerous. It can destroy people if your aim is clicks, views and ratings.
Beck said this and more, while another conservative media outlet reported that Lahren is likely to not return to "The Blaze" once her current contract is over.
The irony of Lahren being under the spotlight this time around is the statement that got her there.
It's strange, for instance, that these comments seem to provoked more criticisms than when she compared Black Lives Matter to the Ku Klux Klan, or when she erroneously states that "a black man is 18.5 times more likely to shoot a police officer than a police officer is to shoot a black man," during her appearance on "The Daily Show."
Then again, many conservatives do draw the line for where friendly disagreement is allowed at abortion.
Now that Lahren has crossed it, they've probably realized what the rest of us already did: Tomi Lahren says things for shock value.
No kidding.
