UPDATE: Sen. Lee’s office provided a transcript of the radio interview on “The Wilkow Majority.”
Wilcow: “This was not a question of access and privacy. This was not a question as to whether major pharmaceutical retailers like Walgreens were going to be able to – they kept saying ‘women should have access.’ Women do have access. We were not – nobody was debating access. This was a debate over whether or not a person who runs a business should be forced to provide something that is largely for recreational behavior if it goes against their religious beliefs.”
Sen. Lee: “Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. This administration appears to – desires to use the awesome coercive power of the federal government into their way of being, their way of existing, their way of believing and thinking and acting. They much prefer to do that than to just make sure that a market exists in which people can get access to things they want or need. And that is a fundamental flaw, and a fundamental flaw that ends up frequently trampling on the individual rights of the citizens, whether it’s religious rights or some other right. And it’s a big problem. As I’ve said before, when government gets too big, it begins to behave like Godzilla in that it might step on your house. And when Godzilla steps on our house he’s not necessarily stepping on your house because he doesn’t like you, or because he wants to eat you. It might just be because he’s Godzilla and he’s huge, and your house is in the way. And it’s an incidental casualty to Godzilla doing what Godzilla does. That’s exactly why it’s important to keep the government reigned in and to carve out areas that are none of the government’s business.”
SALT LAKE CITY – U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) said he agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision in a hot-button case about religious liberty and birth control Monday.
He also went on a Sirius XM radio show, “The Wilkow Majority,” and said he agreed with the host who said women use birth control to protect themselves during “recreational behavior,” ThinkProgress.org reported.
The show host, Andrew Wilkow, argued that the real question in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. was about “whether or not a person who runs a business should be forced to provide something that is largely for recreational behavior, if it goes against their religious beliefs.”
According to ThinkProgress.org, Lee responded, “Yea, that’s right, that’s right,” before claiming “this administration is using the often coercive power of the federal government to force people into their way of being and their way of existing, their way of believing and thinking and acting.”
However, Sen. Lee’s communications director, Brian Phillips, said the senator does not agree with the comments Wilkow made.
Phillips said Sen. Lee’s response was regarding whether or not a person who runs a business should be forced to provide something that goes against their religious beliefs.
According to Phillips, the senator was agreeing the federal government was forcing people into a way of believing and acting.
Phillips said the ThingProgess.org story is a “deliberate lie used to mislead people in an effort to portray Lee in a negative light.”
After the Supreme Court ruling Monday, Sen. Lee said, “Today’s decision in Burwell v Hobby Lobby marks an important victory for religious liberty. Americans do not shed their religious freedoms merely by going into business. The Court’s ruling upholds and strengthens the rights of individuals and the rule of law, while protecting the Constitution.”
