New audio files from a congressman’s radio show include several disparaging remarks toward women. The files, obtained by CNN, include Rep. Jason Lewis (R-MN) expressing disbelief that women could no longer be referred to as “sluts” and saying “young single women” vote based on birth control coverage. The syndicated radio program called the “Jason Lewis Show” aired from 2009 to 2014.

CNN obtained 15 months of audio from the radio show from Michael Brodkorb, the former deputy chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota. Brodkorb first wrote about then candidate Lewis’s comments about women on his radio show in a February 2016 column for the Star Tribune.

In one of the episodes, Lewis defended Rush Limbaugh after the controversial radio host referred to a women’s rights activist as a “slut.” CNN reported Lewis was a regular fill-in for Limbaugh’s national radio show.

Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student at the time, participated in a news conference about health insurance coverage for birth control at Catholic institutions, according to the Washington Post. She was then asked by Democrats to testify at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing.

The Post reported Fluke did not talk about her own sex life during the testimony, choosing to “cite experiences that she said law classmates had shared: Students who pay as much as $1,000 a year out-of-pocket for a birth-control prescription, a married woman who stopped taking the pill because she couldn’t afford it, and a friend who needed the prescription for a medical condition unrelated to pregnancy but gave up battling to get it.”

“Well, the thing is, can we call anybody a slut? This is what begs the question,” Lewis said in a 2012 episode after Limbaugh’s controversial statement, responding to Fluke’s testimony. “Take this woman out of it, take Rush out of it for a moment. 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.

“But it used to be that women were held to a little bit of a higher standard,” Lewis continued. “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?” Lewis also directly defended Limbaugh for his statements about Fluke.

“Now Limbaugh’s reasoning was, look, if you’re demanding that the taxpayers pay for your contraception, you must use a lot of them and therefore, ergo, you’re very sexually active and in the old days, what we used to call people who were in college or even graduate school who were sexually active, we called them sluts,” he said. “Especially if you want somebody to pay for it. Now, you know, obviously that’s a stretch. It was meant as an aspect of entertainment radio.”

Lewis also mentioned Madonna, who he said “has had a series of lovers, as have many in Hollywood” and “dresses up in these sorts of prostitute-like outfits on stage.”

“What did we call those people? 30 years ago? 40 years ago? 50 years ago?” he asked. “You can’t do that today, it’s too politically incorrect?”

CNN reported Lewis also argued “young single women” who voted based on birth control coverage were not human beings and lacked brains.

Lewis released a statement in 2016 standing by similar remarks.

“Liberal reporters and typical politicians may not like the bluntness of the way I’ve framed some issues in my career as a voice in the conservative movement. As the father of two young daughters, I’m not going to back away from the fight now, especially after two disastrous terms of failed leadership under President Obama,” he said. “I expressed in 2012 that I opposed taxpayer funding for abortion and contraceptives, and my position hasn’t changed. I will always stand in defense of innocent life and against taxpayer funding for entities like Planned Parenthood.”

In 2016, The Atlantic dubbed Lewis a “mini-Trump” and mentioned some of his controversial comments on minorities, including his belief that “white people were committing ‘cultural suicide’ and ‘political suicide’ with their failure to procreate at the same level as Hispanics.”

CNN noted Lewis was narrowly elected in 2016 and is considered “one of the most endangered House Republicans in the midterm election.”

Teen Vogue reached out to Lewis for further comment.

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