Update: TheBlaze has reportedly suspended political commentator Tomi Lahren, The Daily Caller reported. Unnamed sources reportedly said Lahren’s show is suspended for at least one week starting Monday. A source with direct knowledge said Lahren’s contract goes until September, but she might leave before then.
On Friday, Lahren suggested it would be hypocrisy for small-government conservatives to also oppose abortion. Not only was she wrong — as libertarian YouTube star Julie Borowski helpfully pointed out — she was also at odds with her boss, Glenn Beck. This gave birth to rumors — which may be quite a bit more than that — that Lahren will be leaving TheBlaze sooner rather than later. Neither Beck nor Lahren responded to requests for comment.
“Political commentator Tomi Lahren wil likely be leaving TheBlaze in September if not sooner,” The Daily Caller’s Peter Hasson reported. Indeed, Beck shot back at Lahren for her remarks. For context, here’s what she 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.
Beck wasted little time in shooting back at Lahren. “Rule another label out. I am NOT a ‘constitutional’. I believe in LIFE, liberty and property. Just an old fashioned ‘constitutionalist,'” he tweeted. Not only did he take Lahren’s word — likely a stammer while identifying herself as a “constitutionalist” — literally, he emphasized his belief in “LIFE,” an attack on Lahren’s implication that the issue of abortion is about controlling a woman’s body, not protecting the life of a baby.
Rule another label out. I am NOT a "constitutional". I believe in LIFE, liberty and property. Just an old fashioned "constitutionalist."
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) March 17, 2017
But Beck didn’t stop there. Responding to attacks, Lahren declared, “I have moderate, conservative, and libertarian views. I’m human. I will never apologize, to anyone, for being an independent thinker.”
I have moderate, conservative, and libertarian views. I'm human. I will never apologize, to anyone, for being an independent thinker.
— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) March 18, 2017
Beck shot back, “Wait, libertarian views? Help me out on Trumpcare, stimulus, and executive orders. Trump is anything but libertarian. #intellectualhonesty”
Wait, libertarian views? Help me out on Trumpcare, stimulus, and executive orders. Trump is anything but libertarian. #intellectualhonesty https://t.co/jlt5sFvQMP
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) March 20, 2017
Nevertheless, in an appearance on “The Glenn Beck Radio Program” on Monday, Beck explained that he would not terminate Lahren’s employment at TheBlaze due to her abortion views. “If you’re pro-choice, you can work at TheBlaze,” he said.
“I don’t hire people that are sycophants or who have my opinion,” Beck declared. “I try to hire people who have a different opinion because I believe in being intellectually rigorous. I don’t want straw men. I want people to make a real argument on the other side so we can learn from each other and we can grow.”
Beck backed this statement up with actions, sharing Peter Heck’s story from The Resurgent. Heck attacked Beck for giving the inexperienced Lahren a platform, and denounced her recent comments, saying, “This isn’t reason. It’s stupidity on steroids.”
Beck not only shared this story, he praised Heck for writing it. “Peter Heck gives me no quarter and he shouldn’t,” TheBlaze founder tweeted. “This is how conservatives should behave. Bold & honest questions.”
Peter Heck gives me no quarter and he shouldn't. This is how conservatives should behave. Bold & honest questions. https://t.co/W3E9JnFtnN
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) March 20, 2017
But Beck fervently disagreed with the idea “that you’re a hypocrite if you want limited government and yet you want the government to protect the life of the unborn.” He cited law from the founding fathers, noting that abortion was illegal under British common law. He quoted James Wilson, one of the few people to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and who served as a judge on the Supreme Court. Wilson said, “Life begins when the infant is first able to stir in the womb.”
Beck also quoted the earliest state law of Virginia, which read, “But if a woman be with child, and any gives her a potion to destroy the child within her, this is murder. For it was not given to her to cure a disease, but unlawfully to destroy the child within her.”
Interestingly, Lahren herself condemned liberals for supporting abortion — as recently as December of last year!
“Pro-choicers are supposed to be about rare and safe abortions, that’s how they avoid sounding like straight-up baby killers, by acknowledging abortion is not a positive thing and a difficult choice,” Lahren declared in December. “Then we have Lena frickin’ Dunham out there wishing she could have murdered a fetus.”
A YouTube user named “Tea Partier” spliced this footage with Lahren’s comments on “The View” Friday, and Beck even tweeted this video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvulzNXQzKI
Lahren also has a long Twitter history of condemning abortion.
Illegals have rights in the USA but not the unborn? #debatenight
— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) October 20, 2016
Some Twitter users pointed out the irony.
Life comes at you fast. pic.twitter.com/AP09UPGtPy
— Danielle Butcher (@DaniSButcher) March 17, 2017
Leon Wolf, managing editor at TheBlaze, issued a scathing rebuke of Lahren on Twitter. He argued that “it would be kind of nonsense to say ‘abortion is murder’ but ‘it’s not the government’s place to dictate.'”
So it would be kind of nonsense to say "abortion is murder" but "it's not the government's place to dictate." https://t.co/5FFqhKJkPU
— Leon Wolf (@LeonHWolf) March 19, 2017
“Most pro-choicers solve this by saying ‘abortion is NOT murder’ but most didn’t say it WAS on TV a month ago,” Wolf added. Ouch.
Most pro-choicers solve this by saying "abortion is NOT murder" but most didn't say it WAS on TV a month ago https://t.co/gRs6a1ne6f
— Leon Wolf (@LeonHWolf) March 19, 2017
Lahren shot back against this criticism. “Funny, some of the self-appointed ‘conservative police’ now attacking me are the same folks who hated Trump, said he wouldn’t win…”
Funny, some of the self-appointed "conservative police" now attacking me are the same folks who hated Trump, said he wouldn't win…🤔
— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) March 19, 2017
But how does she explain her previous liberal statements on “The Scramble,” a show she worked on in 2014 while a senior in college? Here she is backing the “scientific consensus” on climate change, a mere two years before railing against it.
Tomi's favorite hobby in 2016 was calling climate change "bad weather." But in 2014, she said it was an agreed-upon scientific consensus. pic.twitter.com/0PkMPVNfMD
— matt gehring (@mattryanx) January 12, 2017
“This isn’t just growing up & changing her opinions. It’s called getting hired to a propaganda machine, selling out and lying,” one Twitter user accused. Normally, conservatives should overlook these kind of insinuations, but if Lahren is just playing a conservative on TV, that would explain her sudden reversal on abortion. Maybe she wasn’t changing her stance, so much as finally letting her true beliefs out once again.
After all, Lahren’s declaration that she is “pro-choice” seemed to imply most small-government conservatives are hypocrites for also opposing abortion. As TheBlaze’s reporter Kaitlyn Schallhorn pointed out, “Even Hillary Clinton didn’t call pro-life conservatives hypocrites.”
Even Hillary Clinton didn't call pro-life conservatives hypocrites.
— Kaitlyn Schallhorn (@K_Schallhorn) March 18, 2017
Lahren argued that she wasn’t doing this. “Nah, actually I said I believe it would make me a hypocrite. I never claimed to speak for you or judge you. You do you,” she tweeted.
Nah, actually I said I believe it would make me a hypocrite. I never claimed to speak for you or judge you. You do you. https://t.co/B4mfjdHUt4
— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) March 19, 2017
But this is a dodge. Lahren not only suggested that abortion does not involve the killing of a human being, but that small-government conservatives should not support laws saying that it does. There’s a reason she’s in hot water, and it isn’t just because she contradicted herself. Even if she won’t be out of TheBlaze before September, Lahren’s star has fallen.
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