Rep. Jason Lewis, R-Minn., is under increased scrutiny ahead of the 2018 midterm elections after comments he made demeaning women on his former syndicated radio program were unearthed.
Lewis’s comments asked how it was no longer politically correct to describe women as “sluts,” according to a report.
“Does a woman now have the right to behave — and I know there’s a double standard between the way men chase women and running and running around — you know, I’m not going to get there, but you know what I’m talking about,” Lewis said in an episode of his “Jason Lewis Show” in March 2012, per CNN’s KFile.
“But it used to be that women were held to a little bit of a higher standard. We required modesty from women. Now, are we beyond those days where a woman can behave as a slut, but you can’t call her a slut?” he continued.
Lewis’s statements, made on his program that ran from 2009 to 2014, followed conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh referring to Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke as “a slut” in 2012 in the wake of her campaign advocating for religiously affiliated universities and hospitals to offer insurance plans covering medicinal contraceptives costs.
Lewis will face Democratic candidate Angie Craig in November in order to continue representing Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District.
Lewis’s campaign manager Becky Alery dismissed CNN’s report, saying the issue had already been litigated. Lewis’s history of making disparaging remarks about female voters was first broached ahead of his successful bid for Congress in 2016.
“And as Congressman Lewis has said time and time again, it was his job to be provocative while on the radio,” Alery wrote in a statement.
KFile was provided raw audio files of Lewis’s program from Michael Brodkorb, the ex-deputy chair of Minnesota’s Republican Party.
