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Republican congressman has long history of misogynistic comments, CNN reports

A Republican congressman from Minnesota made several misogynistic remarks during radio interviews over the years, including one about it being unfair that people can't call women "sluts" anymore, according to a report from CNN.

Rep. Jason Lewis repeatedly insulted and demeaned women as host of a syndicated radio show that ran from 2009 to 2014, CNN's KFile investigative team found after listening to more than 15 months of audio from the "Jason Lewis Show." CNN said the audio was given to KFile by Michael Brodkorb, the former deputy chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota.

Most of the comments from Lewis that were cited by CNN were in relation to Sandra Fluke, who came to national fame in 2012 when conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh called the then-graduate student a "slut" and a "prostitute" because of her support for the Affordable Care Act. Fluke spoke out about the importance of funding for family planning and contraception.

Lewis, who regularly filled in for Limbaugh, according to CNN, expressed regret that the term "slut" had been deemed unacceptable.

"Can we call anybody a slut?" Lewis asked in a March 2012 episode. "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 went on to explain that Limbaugh's reasoning was, "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."

Lewis, dubbed "America's Mr. Right" in his show's tagline, could not believe that "we really got to the point where you can't refer to Madonna as a slut without being sued."

"I mean, Madonna has had a series of lovers, as have many in Hollywood. Now in the old days, what did we call this?" Lewis asked. "Madonna dresses up in these sorts of prostitute-like outfits on stage, and she goes there and she sings and she shows half of her body. What did we call those people? 30 years ago? 40 years ago? 50 years ago? You can't do that today, it's too politically incorrect?"

Fluke responded to Lewis' comments in a statement to CNN.

"Jason Lewis' attitude toward the women of his district and this country is incredibly insulting and beneath any member of the United States Congress," Fluke said. "The brave women of the #MeToo movement have again reminded all of us that disparaging women with insults like 'slut' and 'parasite,' is an attempt to silence them from speaking up and fighting for comprehensive healthcare they can afford."

Lewis' office to did not immediately respond to USA TODAY when contacted about the CNN story. But campaign manager Rebecca Alery told CNN "this all has been litigated before" and that it was Lewis' "job to be provocative while on the radio."

In August 2012, Lewis said that women were more likely to vote for Barack Obama than Mitt Romney because "it is the women who are guided by more emotion than reason."

"Is birth control really that important to you ladies?" Lewis continued. "Is that really the most important thing that you get your condoms for free? Now you've gotten Madonna, you know, running around and slutty outfits and Sandra Fluke telling everybody I'm not going to pay a dime for my diaphragm."

The next day, Lewis said women who put access to birth control ahead of other issues are not human beings and do not have brains.

"You have no cognitive function whatsoever," he said. "If that's all it takes to buy you off."

The Atlantic detailed some of Lewis' radio show comments in a 2016 article that called him "Minnesota's mini-Trump." The magazine reported that in November 2012 episodes of his radio show, Lewis said white people were committing "cultural suicide" with low birth rates and that women voters who put reproductive rights first "are simply ignorant of the important issues in life."

In a 2009 appearance on the "The Rush Limbaugh Show," The Atlantic reported that Lewis referred to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which took more than 1,800 lives, as "a bunch of whiners."

"If you talk to real Americans, they think the mistake was a bunch of whiners down there," Lewis said. "They don’t think we did too little in Katrina. They think people did not help themselves."

Lewis is one of the more vulnerable Republicans heading into the 2018 midterm elections. Real Clear Politics currently has Lewis' district, Minnesota's 2nd, listed as a "toss-up." 

Democrats were quick to pounce on the CNN story, sharing the article in an email from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. And the pro-Democrat political action committee Emily's List – which aims to help elect women who support abortion rights – denounced Lewis' "slew of degrading statements about women."