On Friday morning conservative mirror-yeller Tomi Lahren made an appearance on The View, a show that is still on. At the end of her appearance, she and the gals spent several seconds discussing why she is pro-choice.
Yes, conservatism’s next rising star, enemy of man-hating feminists everywhere, believes that women should have access to legal abortion.
The hosts mostly handled Lahren with kid gloves, allowing her to monologue in her trademark style without really calling her out on why she’s a fountain of logical fallacies. Donald Trump lies, said one panelist; so did Obama! said Lahren. Russia ties should be investigated, said one panelist; so do wiretapping claims! said Lahren. But they were, said one panelist; I just want an investigation! said Tomi.
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Lahren could be replaced in any debate with a pull-string doll that says “So Did Obama!” and be almost as effective as the real thing. Of course, her sparring partner’s politician of choice doing a bad thing doesn’t make Trump also doing that bad thing less bad, but distraction and false equivalency have always been Lahren’s (very effective) argumentative tacks.
Toward the end of the segment, Lahren told the panel that she believed Hillary Clinton would have been worse for women than Trump. When pressed for her reasoning, she cited the fact that Hillary stayed married to Bill Clinton after he cheated on her. Donald Trump is a man who bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has endorsed cutting funding to Planned Parenthood, an organization that helps millions of low-income women access health care. Following this line of reasoning, forgiving one man for cheating is worse than endangering the health of millions of women.
Joy Behar was unconvinced.
“If he’s so anti-woman,” Lahren shot back, “why did he select a female to run his campaign? If Kellyanne Conway had been a Democrat, you all at this table would be applauding her, singing her praises.”
The audience applauded.
“That’s like saying ‘some of my best friends are Jewish,’ and being an anti-Semite. It has nothing to do with each other,” said Behar.
“I trust women!” Lahren exclaimed.
The audience applauded.
Following that exchange, host Sonny Hostin needled Lahren on abortion, noting that 68% of conservatives consider themselves anti-abortion, and yet, Lahren says she’s pro-choice.
“I’m pro choice, and here’s why,” Lahren said. “I am a constitutional, y’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…”
The audience applauded.
“See? I told you we wouldn’t bite!” said View host Sara Haines as she and Paula Faris grasped for Lahren’s wrists.
The audience applauded.
Lahren has never hidden her pro-choice stance, but her sudden appeal to it is odd given her frequent and fervent attacks on women who identify as feminists, or women who fight for abortion rights. Her stance moves from odd to downright incoherent when taken in context with attacks she made on the women’s march back in January. In one of her trademark rants, she sputtered against the march for being exclusive.
“It’s not just the marchers—it’s the feminist movement and, really, the collective left who preach tolerance and understanding, but only for those people and issues they believe in,” said Lahren. “Meanwhile, they point fingers at Trump or Trump supporters and label us all bigots with their cardboard signs and their hashtags and their exclusive moral high ground we’re just not good enough to stand on. Well, bull.”
Lahren appears to be alluding to the exclusion of pro-life groups from the list of sponsors of the march, of which she considers herself part of the “we” until she’s trying to curry favor in front of a hostile audience.
Girl power.
