Fox News' Liz Trotta Doubles Down On Statements About Rape In The Military (VIDEO)

Fox News pundit Liz Trotta responded to the barrage of criticism that was unleashed after she made a series incendiary statements regarding rape in the military.

Trotta appeared on Fox News on Sunday. Fox News host Eric Shawn said Trotta "indicated that women who put their lives on the line for their country in close proximity to men are courting sexual assault. Some people understood [Trotta] to be saying that because of this, they are less deserving of protection from violent crime from their male counterparts, particularly because [she] criticize[s] the Pentagon's sex abuse programs that are put in place to protect them."

Trotta referred to prepared remarks and said she felt very misunderstood. She responded, "This is a subject that has never gotten a fair and open hearing either in the national media or in Congress." Trotta alleged that "the main objective" of "hardline feminists" is to "force the Pentagon to lift the ban on women in combat. Accordingly, the political correctness infecting the Pentagon has resulted in silly and dishonest fairytales about female heroism."

Trotta recalled the story of Pfc. Jessica Lynch, and said there were "countless other stories of fake heroism or exaggerated prowess in which women are the stars, many of them tailored for the New York Times and its agenda to promote militant feminism, no matter what the truth."

Trotta said, "the military is not a social services operation or a testing ground for gender wars. It is a fighting machine. Yet male troops are now encumbered with the realities of feminist biology. Women are not as strong as men. Their instincts and reactions in crisis are markedly different. There's a reality the left will not face. Biology is destiny."

Shawn also told Trotta that some people felt as though she said "all military men are rapists."

"I certainly did not say all military men are rapists," Trotta responded. "What I believe and tried to express, apparently not well enough, is that the environment of combat by definition sets up a situation where basic instincts rule. The niceties of male, female interaction fade in this arena and any scientist will tell you that testosterone rules."

Trotta then referred to the Pentagon study she cited last week that stated that the number of sex crimes committed by army personnel has increased by 64 percent over the past six years.

According to Trotta, Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta's "answer to the problem is better training for military lawyers, as well as sexual counselors and expansion of the never-enough bureaucracy that exists to support women victims in the armed forces."

Trotta later added, "Something is drastically wrong here, and both men and women are victims of the irrational claims of angry feminists."

WATCH:

(H/T Johnny$)

Related on HuffPost:

Women in the U.S. military:

Comments

[kinogod]

12:31 PM on 02/27/2012

Why is she polluting existence with her ick sexual fantasies?

[herralucking]

11:47 PM on 02/24/2012

She does not understand the role of women in the modern military. the joints cheif know how valuable women military are in outreach roles to the populations where women are denied their voice. If Ms Trotta cannot understand what war is and how to conduct war and how to utilize assets then she in in way over her head talking about the inside dirt of male on male and male on female rape. It IS a problem. Yet she throws out the baby with the bathwater. No legitimate journailist mixes up their topics. She is a crude, man-hating, woman-bashing, check-cashing- faux- ratings tool.

[herralucking]

11:34 PM on 02/24/2012

Just to insert some insight on WHY women are vital to comat theaters: Women can talk to other women in villages, etc. Even in combat gear, women can talk to women. Your objective in any action during war is to either kill everybody or win over the population. Women, in this modern warfare eraa, have the majority of skill-sets in dealing with impoverished populations and finding out what they need. Men have, generally, other skill-sets. Representing the United States with both Men and Women reaching out to a pupulation is a message of WHO WE ARE. What our principles are. What our government is. Everyone can participate wether it's killing ourselves in racing cars or doing triple axels in spandex. That is powerful communication. In the long run,this is not false strategy.

[Jms0537]

05:04 PM on 02/23/2012

These "news" segments have become virtually indistinguishable from the late-night comedy shows that parody them. Except this is more funny.

[energydem]

04:36 AM on 02/23/2012

Women are "courting" sexual assault? I have never understood how a good Republican like this person is could all the sudden forget the much-used "personal responsibility" mantra of the GOP. Why should a woman's mere existence be cause for the lack of control of a man? Complete and utter tripe, totally offensive, not just to women but to the men whose faces she verbally slaps.

[pennywhite]

07:15 PM on 02/22/2012

This is exactly why children should be banned from the Catholic Church. And from Penn State locker rooms. How can we expect men to control their "basic instincts" in situations where they are forced into close unsupervised contact with children?
Actually, if all women and all children were banned from any contact with men, there would be little or no rape. At least not of women and children. Is this the point Ms. Trotta is trying to make?

[dgretter]

10:05 PM on 02/24/2012

You're simply a man-hater, and an ill-informed one at that. Her comment that the coed Army is severely problematic is correct. You have no idea what goes on in these units, but she seems to. She's not saying that; she seems to advocate keeping the genders seperated, for obvious reasons, although you feminists are not comprehending. One of the problems is that female soldiers aren't controlling their basic instincts either, however, that doesn't get much press. Leave it to a man-hater to blame the men. Warriors but victims; what a crew to send off to battle. Armies designed by self-serving fools and politicians. Oh...and being married doesn't make you less of a man-hater.

[pennywhite]

11:48 AM on 02/25/2012

Ms. Trotta is claiming that it is normal for men to cmmit rape, and you say I'm the manhater?

[dgretter]

01:26 PM on 02/25/2012

Penny, I’m on board with how Trotta presented her point; it was awkward at best. However, I never heard her say rape was normal for men; where was that? That’s simply a knee-jerk feminist spin. What I did hear was that after fighting so hard for such a stupid cause (getting to go to war to prove you’re man, which common sense should have told you still aren’t) feminists now demand an entire infrastructure to deal with one specific female issue for when these “warriors” turn into “victims”. Well, can everyone be victims, too? Rape is wrong and abnormal for anyone, but It is only one of 1000 other injustices, horrors that "warriors" have dealt with for centuries, overcome and remained “warriors”. Rape is a weapon in anyone’s hands, but crimes are committed every day. Iraqi citizens are murdered by rogue soldiers. What makes female crimes more horrific? Let’s illustrate: What would happen if you deliberately placed a group of female inmates in a male cell block? Trotta would have responded: “What did you EXPECT was going to happen!!? and that sounds reasonable to me. (I believe the “too much” was unintentional.) Demanding Trotta’s firing for stating an unpopular opinion is not what America was EVER about and NOT what we fought to protect. Sheeez! That’s what tolerating the nuts in white sheets was all about!

[John Talley]

01:06 PM on 02/22/2012

I'll be someone has Ayn Rand in her nightstand drawer, (among other things).

[anastasi]

01:01 PM on 02/22/2012

There are women in Darfur and Congo who have dealt with worse hardship that makes the situation of our soldiers in combat look like a Club Med vacation. Don't tell me that they're not heroic.

[jamesjoyce100]

10:09 AM on 02/22/2012

Anybody that would listen to what Liz Trotta has to say about our military is an idiot. I'm sorry but this woman has no validity what so ever when it comes to comments on the military in any sense. Wake up people.... she is a nobody, socialite desperate for attention. As her people would say, "How Boorish

[Mearcy]

09:59 AM on 02/22/2012

Why doesn't she just go back to her kitchen, back some bread and clean her pearls!

[peithecelt]

02:32 PM on 02/22/2012

Miss Trotta does not BAKE, nor does she clean her pearls.

That's what the help is for.

*eyeroll* ugh. (this bit is directed at her, not you..)

[nickyballs]

09:28 AM on 02/22/2012

Liz Trotta what is an "angry feminist"? Perhaps if the feminist you're referring to were more calm and pacify you'd have a different view?

[tssent]

08:48 AM on 02/22/2012

Gosh Liz, These are the same men on American streets, aren't they? Guess we're going to have to segregate men and women, period, coz we sure don't want them getting raped anywhere, least of all on our city streets.

[tssent]

08:46 AM on 02/22/2012

The American woman, wife, housewife, lover is a solider who must withstand the grief, wounds and shelling of marriage that require 10x the mettle of a war. Anyone who sells the female of the species short has no idea what women in France, Germany, Poland and England (for starters) did for their countries during WWII and, I'm sure, WWI (perhaps even more so). Stop the Stupidity. Women can handle anything men can and often with a great deal more calm and cool, but certainly with at least as much resolve and efficiency.

[Redhunteur]

06:10 AM on 02/22/2012

Oh, I see. So she wasn't implying that SOLDIERS are inherently rapey, just men in general. Gosh, that's so much less offensive to all human beings.

[Patchdee]

04:23 AM on 02/22/2012

".....men and women are victims of the irrational claims of angry feminists." Really?