Ben Shapiro Calls Lena Dunham a ‘Potato’ Over Abortion Comments

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By Daniel J. Solomon December 22, 2016

Ben Shapiro, the rightwing podcast host and pundit, derided Lena Dunham for the comedian’s off-color remarks about abortion.

“She wishes she could feel the solidarity and joy of having murdered a baby,” Shapiro said on the Wednesday edition of his program. “Democrats usually have the brains to cover up their enthusiasm for abortion.” He also described her as someone with “the charisma, brains and looks of a russet potato.”

Dunham, the creator of the popular series “Girls,” generated some controversy online this week after she said on her podcast that she wished she had undergone an abortion. She said that having done so would have let her better express her solidarity with women who have had the procedure and reduce stigma around it, and that she was ashamed to feel in herself a desire to let everyone know that she was “unblemished in this department.”

She later apologized for her statement.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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