Tomi Lahren: A timeline leading to the conservative darling’s firing from 'TheBlaze'
After basking in the glow of conservative affection for some time, political commentator Tomi Lahren has been fired from her role at right-wing news network TheBlaze.
Lahren's boss, conservative commentator Glenn Beck — a mouthpiece for the anti-liberal agenda — banned her permanently from TheBlaze over comments she made on The View in support of abortion rights.
On Twitter, at least, Lahren appears to be taking her dismissal in stride.
Lahren's contentious comments
"I'm pro-choice and here's why," Lahren said during a March 17 segment of The View. "I can't sit here and be a hypocrite and say 'I'm for limited government, but I think that the government should decide what women do with their bodies.'"
Lahren said the government could "stay out of my guns" and "stay out of my body as well."
The statement did not sit well with some conservatives, who took offense with the "hypocrite" label and had seemingly assumed Lahren was anti-abortion. Her previously espoused views on that score are murky at best.
Lahren's suspension was announced the following Monday. On Sunday, Page Six reported the suspension would be permanent.
"Glenn is reminding the world of his conservative principles by sidelining Tomi after she insulted conservatives by calling them hypocrites," a "Beck insider" told Page Six's Richard Johnson. "He's trying to balance being a leading conservative thinker and also someone who can unify the country. He just couldn't sit by and watch as Tomi Lahren said there's no way for conservatives to justify anything other than being pro-choice."
How Lahren got her start
Lahren, 24, is a conspicuously young talking head. Cosmopolitan reported she was granted her first job — hosting On Point With Tomi Lahren on One America News Network — in August 2014, when she was just 21. A new graduate from the University of Nevada, Lahren had approached network CEO Robert Herring asking for an internship, and he reportedly countered with an offer of her own show.
According to Cosmopolitan, she gained notoriety after launching a viral verbal attack on former President Barack Obama in response to a 2015 mass shooting of military personnel in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Roughly a month later, she moved to TheBlaze, where she spearheaded her nightly show, Tomi.
Lahren's politics have always been controversial. She has railed against "radical Islam" and Black Lives Matter — which she called "the new KKK" — and spouted pro-American oil views that basically come down to "drill, baby, drill," whatever the environmental cost.
In a December appearance on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, she infamously argued she wasn't a racist. Lahren was complaining about having to "shut up" about the controversy surrounding Colin Kaepernick and his refusal to kneel for the national anthem because she is white:
Because I criticized a black person or the Black Lives Matter movement doesn't mean I'm anti-black. It doesn't mean I don't like black people or that I'm racist. I've never used racial slurs to address people. I've never looked down on people because of their skin color. To me, true diversity is diversity of thought, not diversity of color. I don't see color.
According to conservative news outlet the Daily Caller, Lahren's anti-abortion comments were the final straw for her colleagues at TheBlaze, with whom the 24-year-old's "inflammatory, oftentimes angry style" put her "increasingly at odds."
