Just earlier this week, the 24-year-old unapologetic Trump supporter gave a widely-condemned on-air speech defending the Republican candidate over lewd remarks he made about women in 2005.
Speaking on TheBlaze, a conservative US news and entertainment network on which she has her own show, Tomi, Lahren fired up at Trump’s critics in the wake of the recording scandal.
“All right, let’s be real. It’s not good. It doesn’t sound good. It doesn’t look good,” she began.
“This recording does not surprise me at all. Be honest – most of you aren’t shocked either. It’s Donald Trump, a billionaire businessman reality star, not the Pope.
“Is anyone really that taken aback by what he said? I know how many of you Trump supporters are feeling – it’s not that these reports surprise you, or even change your opinion of him.
It just doesn’t look good.”
But she then lashed out at those who have criticised Trump over the recording.
“For all those Never Trumpers and bleeding-heartens saying ‘I told you so’, shut the hell up,” she said.
“Don’t go around acting holier-than-thou about this, like you’ve never heard anyone saying anything like that before. Give me a break. And don’t try to shame women who still support Trump. No, we aren’t crying in the corner about this, and that doesn’t make us any less woman, so save your pity.”
She even went as far as to blame the Democrats for the leaked tape.
“The Democrats have been sitting on this for a while now, and they knew if they released it two days before the debate, a month before the election and after the ballots had been printed, they could ensure the spineless GOP would turn tail and run to save their own asses and political careers.
“I think you’re forgetting why we, the voters, chose Trump as our nominee over all of you,” she continued. “We are sick of this holier-than-thou you all parade around in public.
We are sick of the fact that most of you were in office from 2002 to 2006, when we had the White House and both houses of Congress — yet did nothing. You just squawked, that’s it.
“It doesn’t impact border security, national security, trade, jobs, spending or anything else that impacts your daily life,” Lahren said.
“No! But same cannot be said about Hillary’s dream of open trade and open borders. But remember, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
Rather than win over Democrats, her role seems to be to echo, or represent, the views of everyday hard-right Republicans.
Lahren graduated from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas just two years ago.
The South Dakota native and the daughter of military and ranching families originally applied to the One America News Network as an intern, but was instead offered her own show after the interview.
Two years on, she’s a viral political megastar. All of her videos, tweets and other posts seem to be designed to be shared as widely as possible.
And with over three million Facebook fans, 284,000 Twitter followers, and Youtube video views in the tens and hundreds of thousands, whatever she’s doing seems to be having the desired effect.
Despite all this, Lahren is the first to admit she isn’t a journalist. While at university, she studied political science and broadcast journalism with the intention of becoming a political commentator. Even on Facebook, she categorises herself as a ‘News Personality’ rather than a journalist.
She’s best known for her “Final Thoughts” segment, where she gives a piece-to-camera monologue directed at whatever issue tickles her fancy, from President Obama to Beyonce’s 2016 Super Bowl performance.
The Obama monologue was the first that sent her viral, after she urged the President to bomb the Middle East in the wake of the Tennessee shootings last year.
“Yesterday’s moderate is today’s terrorist,” she said in the video. “I care that our commander-in-chief is more concerned with Muslim sensitivity than the honour and sacrifice made by these Marines.”
In just a week, it clocked up more than one million views.
Lahren’s views on race have also brought her under fire. Judging by her monologues and actions on social media, she doesn’t seem to believe in white privilege, or the idea that there is racial inequality against black people in America.
Rather, her concern is for what she believes to be the detrimental impact of activism.
A few months ago, tens of thousands of people signed a Change.org petition to see Lahren removed from The Blaze after she sent out a tweet comparing the Black Lives Matter movement to the Ku Klux Klan.
Dear @theblaze and @glennbeck:
This is a tweet that @TomiLahren deleted. She must explain why she wrote it. pic.twitter.com/ydUHf2X62b
— Jose Antonio Vargas (@joseiswriting) July 8, 2016
The tweet was deleted shortly after going viral.
The petition asked: “Should a biased, misinformed, 23-year-old with no background in law, law degree, life experience, or experience in Government be the political voice of a generation that will change this nation?”
It has over 60,000 signatures.
Earlier this year, in February, she sparked a similar controversy after criticising Beyonce for appearing to support the Black Panthers during the Super Bowl 50 halftime show.
She said the show “ripped off an historical band aid” on America’s civil rights movement by promoting the Black Panthers.
“This isn’t about equality, this is about ram roading an agenda down our throats and using fame and entertainment to do so.”
Clearly, she’s not worried about outrage.
