Nationally syndicated radio host Dana Loesch criticized Jenna Bush Hager on Tuesday while defending comedian Shane Gillis and a controversial joke he made about women during his return to Saturday Night Live.
Loesch, 48, objected to the Today star’s comments in a social media post. Bush Hager, 44, had argued that Gillis’ remarks contribute to a culture that increasingly judges women based solely on their appearance.
“And who is he to comment on women’s bodies?” the daughter of former President George W. Bush said during Tuesday’s episode of Today with Jenna and Sheinelle. “It’s not OK. It’s not OK.
“And I think, like, if we want to be good role models for our children, like, stop talking about the way women look. Period.
“I think many women have said, ‘This is enough.’”
Bush Hager continued, saying she would not want her son to hear such comments “especially in the time we’re living in.” She added that she would be “disgusted” if her husband, Henry Chase Hager, spoke that way about someone, although she said, “He would never.”
Loesch, described as the country’s number-one nationally syndicated female talk radio host, responded with a point-by-point post.
Her comments addressed several of Bush Hager’s concerns individually.
Conservative radio host Dana Loesch, 48, challenged the Today star’s view of the controversy after sharing a 13-minute video defending Shane Gillis and criticizing what she sees as the current state of comedy
Bush Hager, 44, said on Tuesday’s Today with Jenna and Sheinelle that Gillis’ joke reinforces a culture increasingly focused on women’s appearance
“What is your kid doing watching a Gillis monologue on SNL late night?” Loesch wrote in the first point.
“2)” the post continued. “[Bush Hager] said she would be disgusted if her husband made a joke like that.
“OK, good for you. Live your life. It doesn’t make Gillis wrong.”
Just over two minutes into his SNL return, Gillis joked: “I haven’t been to the gym in so long I didn’t know women just dress like wh**es now?”
The remark about women’s activewear triggered an angry backlash.
Loesch, a former CNN political analyst, had published a 13-minute video about the controversy on Tuesday before responding directly to Bush Hager. Her nationally syndicated program, The Dana Show, replaced Rush Limbaugh’s show in nearly a dozen markets in 2021.
Her post went on: “3) She goes on to say the word ‘whore’ is a pejorative (duh?) and that if a girl wants to be proud of her body, then let her.
“OK, so can we let her be ‘proud of her body’ dressed like a whore at home, not at the gym, where treating the space like a pole isn’t exactly hygienic when nobody wants to sit on the seat after your bare butt sweat.”
During his SNL return on Saturday, Gillis joked just over two minutes into his monologue: “I haven’t been to the gym in so long I didn’t know women just dress like wh**es now?”
“YAY, we all win,” Loesch concluded.
In her video, Loesch elaborated: ‘I’ve been to several gyms, and not all women dress like that. Women go there to get the job done and workout, because they have stuff to do.
‘But we have all seen the chicks in there that do that,’ the Bill Clinton aide-turned-Republican radio star continued.
‘And yeah, just because you’re in a gym, if you’re working – I mean, yes: don’t dress like a whore at the gym. This is not difficult.
‘And some people, sometimes, you’ll have that one woman that looks like a whore at the gym.
‘And if you don’t want to be called, looking like a whore at the gym, then don’t dress like a whore at the gym. This is not difficult.’
Loesch left the Democratic Party shortly after Bush Hager’s father took office in 2001, disillusioned with the party after the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the terror attacks September 11.
She served as a paid spokesperson for the NRA from 2017 until 2019, once saying on-air on CNN that she owned an AR-15.
Loesch is a former CNN analyst and Clinton campaign aide who now hosts the number one nationally-syndicated female talk radio show in the country. She left the Democratic party in 2001. She’s seen appearing on Fox Business’s The Evening Edit last month
Bush Hager joined Today shortly after her dad’s second term ended, in 2009.
The Daily Mail has approached NBC for comment. Both SNL and Today are broadcast by NBC.
Gillis, 38, was famously fired from SNL in 2019, just days after being announced as a cast member, over racist and homophobic posts. His hosting turn Saturday was his third since, during which his star has risen dramatically.
He continues to face flak for his monologue. Stars like Dan Levy, of Schitt’s Creek, slammed it as ‘misogynistic.’
The Daily Mail previously reached out to representatives for Gillis for additional comment and has yet to hear back.
