Tomi Lahren Rejects Diva Label, Insists She’s Low Maintenance


Conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren disagrees with any notion that she’s a diva in remarks made during a high-profile interview.

On Monday, the former TV host for TheBlaze settled her bitter legal squabble with Glenn Beck’s Dallas-based digital network and wasted no time in reemerging in the media by appearing on Sean Hannity’s FNC program last night to discuss free speech issues. See clip embedded below.

Lahren, 24, famously and abruptly lost her TV gig, called Tomi, when she revealed her pro-choice leanings on The View, which created a firestorm on the right and the left. Apparently, this is a flip-flop from her earlier pro-life pronouncements and evidently led to her ban from the Beck channel.

“I’m for limited government, so stay out of my guns, and you can stay out of my body as well,” Lahren told The View ladies on March 17, suggesting that pro-lifers are hypocrites.

Previously, she deemed pro-choicers as “straight-up baby killers.” Beck shortly thereafter suspended production on her show on an indefinite basis, which as history has shown, became permanent.

Lahren sued Beck and his media company in early April for wrongful termination, more-or-less arguing that the attempt to muzzle or silence her was equivalent to a firing in violation of her contract that ran through September 30, 2017.

Beck’s countersuit claimed that the media network was relying on a “pay or play” clause in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, graduate’s TheBlaze contract, which allows the channel to stop airing Tomi’s show and keep her from appearing on any network as long as the checks continue to clear for the duration. The legal papers also accused her of alleged unprofessional behavior on the set.

The Daily Caller has separately claimed that she forced TheBlaze staffers to heat up a butt-warming pad in a microwave for her before every show.

While TV studios can be particularly edgy and ego-driven venues, anyone who has become involved in an employment dispute in any industry would probably agree that both sides tend to dredge up incidents that happened in the past and impose their own spin on them to justify their position.

As alluded to above, Lahren and Beck entered into an out-of-court settlement that cancels out her contract, including a non-compete clause, and returns control of her Facebook page with 4 million-plus followers to the former TheBlaze star. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Although Playboy is perhaps an unconventional platform for a political conservative, Lahren agreed to give an exclusive interview with that publication. Although most of the questions seem to contain liberal assumptions in them, to Playboy’s credit, it appears to give her a full opportunity to express her political views in some detail.

When the interviewer questioned Lahren about alleged diva-like behavior and so forth, the political commentator responded as follows.

“One thing my parents never raised me to be was a diva. I’m pretty low maintenance. I’m the hardest worker you’ll ever meet. Anything to the contrary, I would look at the source and ask what their motivation is for saying this. Are they doing it because they really think that or are we in a lawsuit and they’re trying to smear me?”

A South Dakota native, the former One America News Network anchor essentially became an overnight sensation in July of 2015, when a video of her calling out President Obama for lack of leadership in fighting terrorism following the Chattanooga murder of four U.S. Marines and one U.S. Navy sailor went viral.

As far as the abortion controversy is concerned, Lahren described herself as both anti-abortion and pro-choice, and that government should stay out it.

“I don’t think it’s a black-and-white issue…I can’t look at somebody who’s gone through rape or incest, and because they believe they should have an abortion, I can’t look at them as a ‘baby killer.’ I believe we have to approach these issues with compassion and understanding and try to help people.”

Drawing a parallel with gun-free zones that fail to prevent violent acts, the controversial pundit added, “I also don’t believe government-restricted abortion is going to lessen abortion. It’s going to make it less safe and more dangerous for the mother and the baby…”

She also denied flip-flopping on the issue.

“What I said is you have to acknowledge that pro-choice means a choice. By not acknowledging that a choice exists, you are a baby killer.”

Although the pro-life community apparently has become disillusioned with Tomi Lahren, like her or hate her, she is not the only right-of-center person with nuanced views on the very sensitive and personal abortion issue that often falls outside media-imposed categories.

In response to another question, Lahren also argued that feminism is bad for America.

“To say that a woman can be simplified into wanting free abortions or free birth control, and by using a false statistic like the 77 cents on the dollar bullsh*t; to say that that’s what female empowerment is? That’s discrediting and insulting to [a] woman like myself. Saying, ‘Give me, give me, give me’ is not female empowerment…”

With regard to her next career move, Tomi Lahren expressed enthusiasm about working for the Fox News Channel (“that’s the Mecca”), but also would consider the liberal MSNBC network or another outlet as long as “I could be me and be authentic and genuine, and do what I do.”

Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze network has reportedly lost a significant amount of market share and traffic to its web portal once Beck went full-on #NeverTrump. Former employee Tomi Lahren is a President Trump supporter.

[Featured Image by Colin Young-Wolff/Invision/AP Images]

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