Dana Loesch shouts at Piers Morgan: A spoon ‘can be qualified as an assault weapon!

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Conservative radio host Dana Loesch on Thursday argued that classifying certain guns as assault rifles was silly because “if you stab someone with a spoon it can be qualified as an assault weapon.”

Following Thursday’s revelations that Newtown shooter Adam Lanza had fired over 150 rounds with an AR-15 in less than five minutes, Loesch appeared on CNN to argue that it was a “false premise” that Lanza had used an assault weapon.

“We are talking about semi-automatic weapons,” the former Breitbart editor explained. “I do not own a military-style assault weapon. Just because, what, a firearm looks scary then you call it military assault? Do you realize that one of my children has a BB gun that looks like an AR-15? Is that going to be considered a military-style assault weapon? It sounds silly and uneducated.”

CNN host Piers Morgan noted that Lanza had “in the space of 300 seconds using an AR-15, killed 26 people. He had magazines with 30 bullets.”

“Anyone can reload!” Loesch shouted.

“Are you telling me that doesn’t qualify as an assault weapon?” Morgan asked.

“By the technical definition, no, Piers,” Loesch shot back. “Oh, anything can be qualified as an assault weapon. If you stab someone with a spoon, it can be qualified as an assault weapon.”

“So you’re equating stabbing someone with a spoon with shooting dead 26 people?” Morgan wondered.

Liberal CNN contributor Van Jones said that Loesch’s argument was part of the “conscious strategy on the part of the pro-gun folks to constantly bring things back around to things that don’t make any sense.”

“You’re talking about people stabbing people with spoons,” Jones observed. “If that were the problem that we had in America — stabbing people with spoons — we wouldn’t be talking about this right now. What we’re talking about is funeral after funeral after funeral. What we’re talking about is children being gunned down. And what we’re talking about is common-sense measures, not confiscating guns.”

Watch this video from CNN, broadcast March 28, 2013.

CNN Vs. CNN: Loesch Backs Muslim Brotherhood Conspiracy That Cooper, Blitzer Call "McCarthy-Like"

CHELSEA RUDMAN/Media MAtters for America

Last week, CNN contributor Dana Loesch claimed a State Department official has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood -- even as her CNN co-workers Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper dismissed such charges as "McCarthy-like."

On her July 19 radio show, Loesch was discussing charges initially brought by Rep. Michele Bachmann, who in June sent a series of letters to federal agencies claiming that "individuals and organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood" are influencing State Department policies. Bachmann singled out Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin -- who is also married to former Rep. Anthony Weiner -- and claimed that Abedin's family has connections to the Muslim Brotherhood; she later openly wondered how Abedin "was able to avoid being disqualified for a security clearance."

Loesch discussed Bachmann's Brotherhood infiltration theory with anti-Islam activist Brigitte Gabriel. When Gabriel said that it was "about time our government begins an investigation into the infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood into our government," Loesch agreed, saying, "Absolutely," then added:

LOESCH: Looking especially at how some of our foreign policy has been handled, Hillary Clinton essentially siding with the Muslim Brotherhood candidate in Egypt, and then it was discovered that her top aide -- Huma Abedin -- is essentially a member of the female version of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Muslim Sisterhood. All of this -- it seems enough to me to pose questions as to why our government is becoming so close with a group that has been so hostile to the United States, has fought against the United States, has sided with terrorists, and is a very oppressive regime that believes in Sharia law.

Bachmann's letters have received bipartisan condemnation -- Sen. John McCain even blasted the accusations from the floor of the Senate -- for failing to support her charges with concrete evidence. Indeed, Loesch's colleagues at CNN also criticized Bachmann's charges.

On his July 17 show, host Anderson Cooper said that Bachmann's evidence was "questionable at best." He laid out her guilt-by-association claims in a graphic and said:

COOPER: So that's how many degrees of separation Bachmann's claim is based on. Huma Abedin's deceased father, who started an organization decades ago, had the support of a guy who had another organization that might have had the support of another organization, the Muslim Brotherhood. And because of that, Huma Abedin might be some sort of spy or infiltrator and deserves to be investigated.

Wolf Blitzer also dismissed Bachmann's claims, calling her charges "McCarthy-like" on the July 19 broadcast of his show. After a heated back-and-forth with Democratic lobbyist Hilary Rosen about Bachmann and her letters, Blitzer finally said, "It's an outrageous, McCarthy-like charge, to be sure, and she does owe Huma -- who I know well -- an apology."

This is not the first time Loesch has been at odds with her CNN colleagues -- in January, a number of CNN journalists criticized Loesch for praising U.S. Marines who allegedly urinated on the dead bodies of Taliban members.

CNN’s Loesch tells ‘foreigner’ Bashir to ‘go back to his own country’

By David Ferguson/Raw Story

Dana Loesch is apparently furious at MSNBC’s Martin Bashir. Yesterday, Bashir called former Massachusetts Governor and presumptive Republican candidate for president Mitt Romney a liar and said that by his own faith’s tenets, he’s going to hell for what he said about President Obama and the economy.

That was apparently more than Loesch, a CNN contributor, erstwhile Andrew Breitbart protege and supporter of corpse desecration could stomach hearing about her party’s nominee. In a sputtering freakout rant from Thursday’s edition of “The Dana Show,” she called Bashir “an unintelligent hack” and “a foreigner” who isn’t qualified to cover U.S. politics.

“I don’t want to hear a foreigner talking about media in this country, or politics in this country.” she said, “You don’t understand it.” She urged the award-winning journalist to go back to “his own country” and report on British politics and celebrities, “and be famous off of that.”

You can hear the clip, embedded via Media Matters, below:

CNN contributor Dana Loesch: Women ‘get raped’ for supporting the left

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

CNN contributor and blogger Dana Loesch said Monday at the Tea Party Tax Day rally in Chicago that women “get raped” for supporting liberals and progressives like the “Occupy Wall Street” movement.

“What did women receive for supporting the left?” she asked the crowd. “You’ve seen it here with your Occupy movement, haven’t you? They get raped.”

“This man on my shirt had a message that I think needs to be reiterated since it keeps happening,” Loesch said, wearing a shirt picturing the late Andrew Breitbart. “Stop raping people! Behave yourselves!”

At the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Breitbart angrily confronted a group of “Occupy” protesters. He called them “freaks and animals,” and told them to “stop raping people.”

His tirade made reference to reports of crime and sexual assaults at some “Occupy” camps.

The various demonstrations across the country took place in public parks, and most of them offered free food and shelter. This attracted a number of people who were not strictly a part of the movement, including criminals and other troublemakers. In many cases, protesters were victims of sexual assault, not the assailants.

When asked about the “Occupy Wall Street” protests after her speech by independent YouTube reporter John Sheehan, Loesch said she was “fascinated” by the movement, but did not understand its purpose. After being questioned about crime at the “Occupy” protests, she said that all she knew was that the movement was about “vandalism and rape.”

“What are you about if not those things?” she said. “What are you here for? What are you involved in the Occupy movement for?”

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube on April 17 by John Sheehan, below:

CNN Contributor Dana Loesch Defends Virginia ‘State-Sponsored Rape’ Bill As No Different Than Consensual Sex

By Travis Waldron/Think Progress




This week, a Virginia state House committee overwhelmingly approved a bill requiring women to receive an ultrasound before they can have an abortion. Because the majority of abortions happen in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, many women would have to undergo an invasive procedure “in which a probe is inserted into the vagina, and then moved around until an ultrasound image is produced,” as Dahlia Lithwick explained last week.

CNN contributor and Andrew Breitbart blogger Dana Loesch, however, sees no problem with a law that effectively legalizes state-sponsored rape, saying the procedure is no different than penetration that occurred during consensual intercourse that “resulted in the pregnancy,” as Little Green Footballs reported:

LOESCH: That’s the big thing that progressives are trying to say, that it’s rape and so on and so forth. [...] There were individuals saying, “Oh what about the Virginia rape? The rapes that, the forced rapes of women who are pregnant?” What? Wait a minute, they had no problem having similar to a trans-vaginal procedure when they engaged in the act that resulted in their pregnancy.

Listen:

Unfortunately, such a radical view isn’t unique to conservative talking heads like Loesch. According to Lithwick, an unnamed Republican delegate made the same argument in support of the bill, saying women consented to being “vaginally penetrated when they got pregnant.”

Why CNN Suspended Liberal Roland Martin For Offensive Comments But Not Conservative Dana Loesch

By Alyssa Rosenberg/Think Progress

Roland Martin has been suspended from CNN aftertweeting that, “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl.” He then insisted that, rather than making a joke about violence against men who are attracted to men, he really just hates soccer: “@DrMChatelain @notjustsexuality well that shows how ignorant you are. I rip on soccer all of the time. Learn to pay attention!”

It’s the second time in a month that CNN commentators have come under fire for controversial comments: Dana Loesch recently cheered reports of members of the United States Marine Corps urinating on the bodies of dead Afghans and suggested that had she been present, she would have joined in. But while Martin apologized and will experience an indefinite suspension, CNN and Loesch refused to apologize for her remarks, and she’s remained on the air.

The clear difference between the two cases? A sense that CNN’s audience was offended. GLAAD, which keeps a careful eye on defamation against gays and lesbians in the media,moved quickly to call for Martin’s dismissal and to track the network’s response to the incident. CNN got the message that its own constituents were upset, and that it would suffer consequences — or at least a lot of annoyance — if it failed to act.

Loesch’s comments on the other hand, offended human rights advocates and decent people everywhere. But that’s not the same as running afoul of an organization with a well-established plan to respond to these kinds of events and a well-worn path to media outlets who would cover and amplify their response. While Loesch’s comments were reprehensible, there was also no organized group who was likely or able to hold CNN accountable for her words, and for continuing to let her appear on-air without penalty.

Taken together, the way CNN handled Martin’s and Loesch’s comments makes it look like CNN has no consistent internal values, and no internal standard for how to respond when it commenters express sentiments that are an anathema to those values. I’m glad to know, per CNN’s statement, that “Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated.” But why should it take several days of consideration for CNN to arrive at that conclusion? If the network’s truly committed to the proposition that violence against gay people is no joking matter, that’s something it should know in advance, and CNN should have a personnel policy in place to determine what the appropriate penalty is when someone violates their standards. Similarly, whether Loesch’s comments violate CNN’s internal values shouldn’t be something that’s determined by the level of outrage outside the network’s headquarters.

CNN Journalists Blast Loesch's "Outrageous" Comments

by Joe Strupp/Media Matters

Several CNN on-air journalists are criticizing Dana Loesch's recent comments supporting the U.S. Marines who allegedly urinated on the dead bodies of Taliban forces.

Loesch, a CNN contributor, made the comments during her radio show Thursday. Among other things, Loesch said of the incident: "I'd drop trou and do it too."

Such views brought sharp criticism from some CNN on-air reporters.

"I can't imagine someone really thinking that, it is so outrageous," said one CNN reporter who requested anonymity. "I think she is trying to garner attention to herself, and that is sad. If that is what she truly believes, she has issues. If you look at that video, I don't care who you are, your stomach should turn.

"The problem with these contributors is they aren't under the same guidelines journalists are, and CNN journalists are. We have very clear ways of doing business. When you have these people we bring in to spice up our airwaves, it is going to happen. It is concerning, obviously."

Another regular CNN journalist added: "I am of the school of thought, 'Why aren't we putting people who are knowledgeable on the air?' I'll just say 'Ewww.' I think it's in poor taste."

A third CNN journalist who has been reporting on the story said Loesch is misguided in thinking that defending the Marines' alleged actions amount to being supportive of the military.

"If she is thinking that she is somehow supporting the military, any source in the military will tell you she is not," the journalist said. "It is so distasteful for the military. It is a black eye. Clearly, everyone I've talked to said that is not acceptable."

At least one regular CNN political contributor took issue with the comments and with CNN's handling of Loesch and other right-wing contributors:

"What's interesting is how the kid gloves are applied to outlandish comments made by the likes of Erick Erickson or Dana Loesch and how it has a negative impact on the CNN brand," said the contributor, who also requested anonymity. "There really is no pushback or no real conversation that says, 'Look, you make these kinds of comments or you write these kinds of wild, crazy stuff, that's just not what we're about.' It simply doesn't happen. I think there is fear of saying anything to them because they are Tea Party folks, and there has been a clear effort on the part of our political team to court that whole Tea Party thought process, if you will."

"The danger is always the negative impact on your whole political coverage," the contributor added. "Because clearly you want there to be a point of view, but there is a difference between a point of view and being so far off the rails it defies logic."