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Ann Coulter | |
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_(cropped).jpg) Coulter in 2019 | |
| Born | Ann Hart Coulter (1961-12-08)December 8, 1961 (age 63) New York City, U.S. |
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| Political party | Republican[1] |
| Website | anncoulter |
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Ann Hart Coulter (/ˈkoʊltər/ ⓘ; born December 8, 1961) is an American conservativemedia pundit,author,syndicated columnist, and lawyer. She became known as a media pundit in the late 1990s, appearing in print and on cable news as an outspoken critic of theClinton administration. Her first book concerned theimpeachment of Bill Clinton and sprang from her experience writing legal briefs forPaula Jones's attorneys, as well as columns she wrote about the cases.[2] Coulter's syndicated column forUniversal Press Syndicate appears in newspapers and is featured on conservative websites. Coulter has also written 13 books.[3]
Ann Hart Coulter was born on December 8, 1961,[4] in New York City, to John Vincent Coulter (1926–2008), anFBI agent from aworking classCatholicIrish American andGerman American family[5] inAlbany, New York, and Nell Husbands Coulter (née Martin; 1928–2009), a homemaker who was born inPaducah, Kentucky.
Coulter's mother's ancestry has been traced back on both sides of her family to a group ofPuritansettlers inPlymouth Colony,British America arriving on theGriffin withThomas Hooker in 1633,[6] and her father's family were Catholic Irish and German immigrants who arrived in America in the 19th century. Her father's Irish ancestors emigrated during thefamine[5] and became ship laborers, tilemakers, brickmakers, carpenters andflagmen. Coulter's father attended college on theGI Bill and later became an FBI agent.[7]
She has two older brothers: James, an accountant,[8] and John, an attorney.[9] Her family later moved toNew Canaan, Connecticut, where Coulter and her two brothers were raised.[10] Coulter graduated fromNew Canaan High School in 1980.[11]
While attendingCornell University, Coulter helped foundThe Cornell Review,[12] and was a member of theDelta Gamma national sorority.[13] She graduatedcum laude from Cornell in 1984 with aBachelor of Arts degree inhistory and received herJuris Doctor from theUniversity of Michigan Law School in 1988, where she was an editor of theMichigan Law Review.[14] At Michigan, Coulter was president of the local chapter of theFederalist Society and was trained at theNational Journalism Center.[15]
Coulter's age was disputed in 2002. While she argued that she was not yet 40,The Washington Post columnistLloyd Grove cited a birthdate of December 8, 1961, which Coulter provided when registering to vote inNew Canaan, Connecticut, prior to the1980 Presidential election, for which she had to be 18 years old to register. A driver's license issued several years later purportedly listed her birthdate as December 8, 1963. Coulter has not confirmed either date, citing privacy concerns.[16]
After law school, Coulter served as alaw clerk inKansas City for JudgePasco Bowman II of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.[17] After a short time working in New York City in private practice, where she specialized incorporate law, Coulter left to work for the United StatesSenate Judiciary Committee after theRepublican Partytook control of Congress in 1994. She handled crime and immigration issues for SenatorSpencer Abraham ofMichigan and helped craft legislation designed to expedite thedeportation ofaliens convicted offelonies.[18] She later became a litigator with theCenter for Individual Rights.[19]
Coulter has written 13 books, and also publishes a syndicated newspaper column. She is particularly known for herpolemical style,[20] and describes herself as someone who likes to "stir up the pot. I don't pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do".[21]She idolizedClare Boothe Luce for her satirical style.[22] She also makes numerous public appearances, speaking on television and radiotalk shows, as well as oncollegecampuses, receiving both praise and protest. Coulter typically spends 6 to 12 weeks of the year on speaking engagement tours, and more when she has a book coming out.[23]In 2010, she made an estimated $500,000 on the speaking circuit, giving speeches on topics of modernconservatism,gay marriage, and what she describes as the hypocrisy ofmodern American liberalism.[24] During one appearance at theUniversity of Arizona, apie was thrown at her.[25][26][27] In defense of her ideas, Coulter has on occasion responded with inflammatory remarks toward hecklers and protestors who attend her speeches.[28][29]
Coulter has authored twelve books, including many that have appeared onThe New York Times Best Seller list, with a combined 3 million copies sold as of May 2009[update].[30]
Coulter's first book,High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton, was published byRegnery Publishing in 1998 and madeThe New York Times Bestseller list.[2] It details Coulter's case for theimpeachment of PresidentBill Clinton.
Her second book,Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right, published byCrown Forum in 2002, reached the number one spot onThe New York Times non-fiction best seller list.[31] InSlander, Coulter argues that PresidentGeorge W. Bush was given unfair negative media coverage. The factual accuracy ofSlander was called into question by then-comedian and author, later DemocraticU.S. Senator fromMinnesota,Al Franken; he also accused her of citing passages out of context.[32] Others investigated these charges, and also raised questions about the book's accuracy and presentation of facts.[33][34] Coulter responded to criticisms in a column called "Answering My Critics".[35]
In her third book,Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, also published by Crown Forum, she reexamines the 60-year history of theCold War—including the career ofSenator Joseph McCarthy, theWhittaker Chambers-Alger Hiss affair, andRonald Reagan's challenge toMikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall"—and argues that liberals were wrong in their Cold War political analyses and policy decisions, and that McCarthy was correct about Soviet agents working for the U.S. government.[36]She also argues that the correct identification ofAnnie Lee Moss, among others, ascommunists was misreported by the liberal media.[37]Treason was published in 2003, and spent 13 weeks on the Best Seller list.[38]
Crown Forum published a collection of Coulter's columns in 2004 as her fourth book,How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter.[39]
Coulter's fifth book, published by Crown Forum in 2006, isGodless: The Church of Liberalism.[40]In it, she argues, first, thatAmerican liberalism rejects the idea of God and reviles people of faith, and second, that it bears all the attributes of a religion itself.[41]Godless debuted at number one on theNew York Times Best Seller list.[42]
Coulter'sIf Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans (Crown Forum), published in October 2007, andGuilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America (Crown Forum), published on January 6, 2009, both also achieved best-seller status.[43]
On June 7, 2011,Crown Forum published her eighth bookDemonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America.[44]
Her ninth book, published September 25, 2012, wasMugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama. It argues that liberals, and Democrats in particular, have taken undue credit for racial civil rights in America.[45]
Coulter's tenth book,Never Trust a Liberal Over 3 – Especially a Republican, was released on October 14, 2013. It is her second collection of columns and her first published by Regnery since her first book,High Crimes and Misdemeanors.[46] Coulter published her eleventh book,Adios, America: The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole, on June 1, 2015. The book addresses illegal immigration, amnesty programs, and border security in the United States.[47]
In the late 1990s, Coulter's weekly (biweekly from 1999 to 2000)syndicated column forUniversal Press Syndicate began appearing. Her column is featured on six conservative websites:Human Events Online,WorldNetDaily,Townhall.com,VDARE,FrontPage Magazine,Jewish World Review and her own website. Her syndicator says, "Ann's client newspapers stick with her because she has a loyal fan base of conservative readers who look forward to reading her columns in their local newspapers".[48]
In 1999, Coulter worked as acolumnist forGeorge magazine.[49][50] Coulter also wrote weekly columns for the conservative magazineHuman Events between 1998 and 2003, with occasional columns thereafter. In her columns, she discussed judicial rulings,constitutional issues, and legal matters affecting Congress and theexecutive branch.[51]
In 2001, as a contributing editor and syndicated columnist forNational Review Online (NRO), Coulter was asked by editors to make changes to a piece written after theSeptember 11 attacks. On the showPolitically Incorrect, Coulter accusedNRO ofcensorship and said she was paid $5 per article.NRO dropped her column and terminated her editorship.Jonah Goldberg, the editor-at-large ofNRO, said: "We did not 'fire' Ann for what she wrote... we ended the relationship because she behaved with a total lack of professionalism, friendship, and loyalty [concerning the editing disagreement]."[52]
In August 2005, theArizona Daily Star dropped Coulter's syndicated column, citing reader complaints: "Many readers find her shrill, bombastic, and mean-spirited. And those are the words used by readers who identified themselves as conservatives".[53]
In July 2006, some newspapers replaced Coulter's column with those of other conservative columnists following the publication of her fourth book,Godless: The Church of Liberalism.[54] AfterThe Augusta Chronicle dropped her column, newspaper editor Michael Ryan said: "it came to the point where she was the issue rather than what she was writing about."[55] Ryan added that he continued himself "to be an Ann Coulter fan" as "her logic is devastating and her viewpoint is right most of the time."[55]
Coulter made her first national media appearance in 1996 after she was hired by the then-fledgling networkMSNBC as a legal correspondent. She later appeared onCNN andFox News,[56] and went on to make frequent guest appearances on many television and radiotalk shows. Additionally, she stars in the 2015 filmSharknado 3: Oh Hell No!, in which she portrays the vice-president of the United States.[57]
Ann Coulter is aconservative columnist and, as a member of theFederalist Society, is a staunch advocate offederalism,originalism,states' rights andtextualism. In 2003, described herself as a "typical, immodest-dressing, swarthy male-loving, friend-to-homosexuals, ultra-conservative."[58] She is a registeredRepublican and former member of the advisory council ofGOProud since August 9, 2011.[59] WhenMilo Yiannopoulos initially defendedpederasty,[60] Coulter commented, "Well, Milo learned HIS lesson. Pederasty acceptable only for refugees and illegals. Then libs will support you."[61] According toNBC News, Coulter has been known for her "racist and anti-immigrant stances" and has made several xenophobic comments aboutNikki Haley in a racist tirade.[62]
Coulter supported theDobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling, which overturned theRoe v. Wade andPlanned Parenthood v. Casey precedent, because she does not believe in aright to privacy. She believes abortion is astates' rights issue and opposes federal government regulating both for and against abortion. She describes herself as an "anti-abortion zealot". She described banning most abortions after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy as "shockingly reasonable".[63] She believes abortion, excluding abortion exceptions in cases of fetal impairment, rape and danger to a woman's life or health, should be illegal in most other cases.[64][65]
Coulter is aPresbyterian.[66] Coulter was raised by aCatholic father andProtestant mother.[67] At one public lecture she said: "I don't care about anything else; Christ died for my sins, and nothing else matters."[68]
Confronting some critics' views that her content and style of writing is unchristian,[69] Coulter said that she is "a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it."[70] Six years later, in 2011, she also said "Christianity fuels everything I write."[71]
She supportsthe display of the Confederate flag[72] accusing US-born Nikki Haley of being an "immigrant" for removing the Confederate flag during her term as Governor. Coulter also called Haley a "bimbo" and a "preposterous creature" and attacked India for "worshipping cows" and having a "rat temple". She also remarked "This is my country, lady, I'm not an American Indian, and I don't like them taking down all the monuments."[62][73]
Coulter advocates teachingintelligent design, a pseudoscientific anti-evolution ideology, alongside evolution.[74][75][76][77] InGodless: The Church of Liberalism, Coulter characterized the theory ofevolution as bogus science, and contrasted her beliefs to what she called the left's "obsession withDarwinism and the Darwinian view of the world, which replaces sanctification of life with sanctification of sex and death".[78]
Ann Coulter supports, regardless of her own personal position on the issue, afederaliststates' rights position onabortion,[79]affirmative action,[80]cannabis legalization,[81]capital punishment,[82]contraception,[83]criminal justice reform,[84]education,[85]environmental regulations,[86]gun control,[87]hate crime laws,[88]healthcare,[89]labor laws,[90]minimum wage,[91]religious displays on public buildings,[92]prostitution,[93]right-to-work laws,[94]same-sex marriage,[95]sodomy laws,[96]state preemption laws,[97]state religion,[98]voting rights,[99] andwelfare.[100]
Coulter endorsed the NSA'sTerrorist Surveillance Program directed at Al-Qaeda.[101] During a 2011 appearance onStossel, she said "PATRIOT Act, fantastic,Gitmo, fantastic,waterboarding, not bad, thoughtorture would've been better."[102] She criticizedRand Paul for "this anti-drone stuff".[103]
Coulter opposeshate crime laws, calling them "unconstitutional". She also stated that "Hate-crime provisions seem vaguely directed at capturing a sense of cold-bloodedness, but the law can do that without elevating some victims over others."[104]
Although Coulter supported theBrown v. Board of Education ruling, she is critical ofdesegregation busing, which she calls "forced busing" and desegregation court rulings sinceBrown v. Board of Education.[105][106] She supportsliteracy tests for voting, which she claims are not unconstitutional or prohibited in theCivil Rights Act of 1964.[107] She supports the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[108]
Coulter rejects "the academic convention ofeuphemism andcircumlocution",[109] and is claimed to play tomisogyny in order to further her goals; she "dominates without threatening (at least not straight men)".[74] Feminist critics also reject Coulter's opinion that the gains made by women have gone so far as to create an anti-male society[110] and her call for women to be rejected from the military because they are more vicious than men.[111] Like the late anti-feministPhyllis Schlafly, Coulter uses traditionally masculine rhetoric as reasoning for the need for traditional gender roles, and she carries this idea of feminized dependency into her governmental policies, according to feminist critics.[112]
Coulter said in 2021 that women should not be allowed to vote.[113]
Coulter has criticized former presidentGeorge W. Bush's immigration proposals. In a 2007 column, she claimed that the current immigration system was set up to deliberately reduce the percentage of whites in the population.[114]
Coulter opposes theImmigration and Nationality Act of 1965.[115] She strongly opposedamnesty forundocumented immigrants, and at the 2013 CPAC said she had become "a single-issue voter against amnesty".[116]
In June 2018, during the controversy caused by theTrump administration family separation policy, Coulter dismissed immigrant children as "child actors weeping and crying" and urged Trump not to "fall for it".[117]
Coulter is an advocate of thewhite genocide conspiracy theory.[118][119][120] She has compared non-white immigration into the United States with genocide,[121] and claiming that "a genocide" is occurring against South African farmers,[122] she has said that theBoers are the "only real refugees" in South Africa.[123][124] Regarding domestic politics,Vox labelled Coulter as one of many providing a voice for "the 'white genocide' myth",[125] and theSPLC covered Coulter's remarks that if the demographic changes occurring in the U.S. were being "legally imposed on any group other thanwhite Americans, it would be called genocide".[126][114]
Since the 1990s, Coulter has had many acquaintances in the LGBT community. She describes herself as "theJudy Garland of the Right", reflectingGarland's large fan base from the gay community. In the last few years before 2015 she attracted LGBT fans, namely gay men anddrag queens.[127][128]
Coulter opposes same-sex marriage, opposesObergefell v. Hodges, and supports, after previously saying she did not, afederal U.S. constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union of one man and one woman.[129][130] She claims her opposition to same-sex marriage "wasn't an anti-gay thing" and that "It's genuinely a pro-marriage position to oppose gay marriage".[131] Coulter claims that same-sex marriage would "ruin gay culture", because "gays value promiscuous sex over monogamy".[127]
In an October 2003 C-SPAN debate, Coulter said there was nothing in the US Constitution about same-sex marriage and that she did not think she had taken a position yet on the issue of same-sex marriage. When asked, hypothetically, as Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) judge, if she would overturn a state statutorily legalizing same-sex marriage, she said she would not. When asked if she would support a federal U.S. constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union of one man and one woman, she said she did not because she thought it was pointless as SCOTUS wasn't correctly interpreting the constitution as it is according to her.[132] On November 18, 2003, the dayGoodridge v. Department of Public Health was decided, she began helping to launch a national effort to amend the U.S. Constitution to prevent same-marriage.[133]
Coulter also opposes civil unions[134] andprivatizing marriage.[135] When addressed with the issue ofrights granted by marriage, she said, "Gays already can visit loved ones in hospitals. They can also visit neighbors, random acquaintances, and total strangers in hospitals—just like everyone else. Gays can also pass on property to whomever they would like."[136] She also stated that same-sex sexual intercourse was already protected under theFourth Amendment, which prevents police from going into your home without a search warrant or court order.[137]
Coulter disagreed with repealingDon't Ask Don't Tell, stating that it is not an "anti-gay position; it is a pro-military position" because "sexual bonds are disruptive to the military bond".[138] She also stated that there is "no proof that all the discharges for homosexuality involve actual homosexuals."[139]
Coulter has expressed her opposition to treatment of LGBT people in the countries of Cuba, China, and Saudi Arabia.[140][141]
At the 2007CPAC, Coulter said, "I do want to point out one thing that has been driving me crazy with the media—how they keep describingMitt Romney's position as being pro-gays, and that's going to upset the right wingers", and "Well, you know, screw you! I'm not anti-gay. We're against gay marriage. I don't want gays to be discriminated against." She added, "I don't know why all gays aren't Republican. I think we have the pro-gay positions, which is anti-crime and for tax cuts. Gays make a lot of money and they're victims of crime. No, they are! They should be with us."[142]
In Coulter's 2007 bookIf Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans, in the chapter "Gays: No Gay Left Behind!", she argued that Republican policies were more pro-gay than Democratic policies. Coulter attended the 2010 HomoCon ofGOProud, where she gave a speech about why gays should oppose same-sex marriage.[143]
At the 2011CPAC, during her question-and-answer segment, Coulter was asked about GOProud and the controversy over their inclusion at the 2011 CPAC. She boasted how she talked GOProud into dropping its support for same-sex marriage in the party's platform, saying, "The left is trying to co-opt gays, and I don't think we should let them. I think they should be on our side", and "Gays are natural conservatives".[144] Later that year, she joined advisory board for GOProud. OnLogo'sThe A-List: Dallas she told gay Republican Taylor Garrett that "The gays have got to be pro-life", and "As soon as they find thegay gene, guess who the liberal yuppies are gonna start aborting?"[145]
Coulter endorsed President Trump's July 26, 2017 tweets announcing a ban on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military, expressing support for prohibiting their service and opposing the use of public funds for gender-affirming surgeries or related treatments for service members, calling the policy a stand against "absurd political correctness."[146]
Coulter strongly supports continuing thewar on drugs.[147] However, she has said that, if there were not awelfare state, she "wouldn't care" if drugs were legal.[148] She spoke about drugs as a guest onPiers Morgan Live, where she said that marijuana users "can't perform daily functions".[149]
In April 2019, Coulter said of SenatorBernie Sanders she would vote and perhaps even work for him in the2020 U.S. presidential election if he stuck to his "original position" on U.S. border policy. "If he went back to his original position, which is the pro blue-collar position—I mean, it totally makes sense with him", and "If he went back to that position, I'd vote for him, I might work for him. I don't care about the rest of the socialist stuff. Just, can we do something for ordinary Americans?"[150][151]
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(March 2018) |
Ann Coulter has described herself as a "polemicist" who likes to "stir up the pot" and does not "pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do".[152] While her political activities in the past have included advising a plaintiff suing PresidentBill Clinton as well as considering a run for Congress, she mostly serves as a politicalpundit, sometimes creatingcontroversy ranging from rowdy uprisings at some of the colleges where she speaks to protracted discussions in the media.
Time magazine's John Cloud once observed that Coulter "likes to shock reporters by wondering aloud whether America might be better off if women lost the right to vote".[56] This was in reference to her statement that "it would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact. In fact, in every presidential election since 1950—exceptGoldwater in '64—the Republican would have won, if only the men had voted."[58] Similarly, in an October 2007 interview withThe New York Observer, Coulter said:[153]
If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.It also makes the point, it is kind of embarrassing, the Democratic Party ought to be hanging its head in shame, that it has so much difficulty getting men to vote for it. I mean, you do see it's the party of women and 'We'll pay for health care and tuition and day care—and here, what else can we give you, soccer moms?'
Coulter has also appeared on Fox News and advocated for a poll tax and a literacy test for voters (this was in 1999, and she reiterated her support of a literacy test in 2015).[154]
Coulter first became a public figure shortly before becoming an unpaid legal adviser for the attorneys representingPaula Jones in hersexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton. Coulter's friendGeorge Conway had been asked to assist Jones' attorneys, and shortly afterward Coulter, who wrote a column about the Paula Jones case forHuman Events, was also asked to help, and she began writing legal briefs for the case.
Coulter later stated that she would come to mistrust the motives of Jones' head lawyer, Joseph Cammaratta, who by August or September 1997 was advising Jones that her case was weak and tosettle, if a favorable settlement could be negotiated.[18][155] From the outset, Jones had sought an apology from Clinton at least as eagerly as she sought a settlement.[156] However, in a later interview Coulter recounted that she herself had believed that the case was strong, that Jones was telling the truth, that Clinton should be held publicly accountable for his misconduct, and that a settlement would give the impression that Jones was merely interested inextorting money from the President.[18]
David Daley, who wrote the interview piece forThe Hartford Courant recounted what followed:
Coulter played one particularly key role in keeping the Jones case alive. InNewsweek reporter Michael Isikoff's new bookUncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story, Coulter is unmasked as the one who leaked word of Clinton's "distinguishing characteristic"—his reportedly bent penis that Jones said she could recognize and describe—to the news media. Her hope was to foster mistrust between the Clinton and Jones camps and forestall a settlement ... I thought if I leaked the distinguishing characteristic it would show bad faith in negotiations. [Clinton lawyer] Bob Bennett would think Jones had leaked it. Cammaratta would know he himself hadn't leaked it and would get mad at Bennett. It might stall negotiations enough for me to get through to [Jones adviser]Susan Carpenter-McMillan to tell her that I thought settling would hurt Paula, that this would ruin her reputation, and that there were other lawyers working for her. Then 36 hours later, she returned my phone call. I just wanted to help Paula. I really think Paula Jones is a hero. I don't think I could have taken the abuse she came under. She's this poor little country girl and she has the most powerful man she's ever met hitting on her sexually, then denying it and smearing her as president. And she never did anything tacky. It's not like she was going on TV or trying to make a buck out of it."[18]
In his book, Isikoff also reported Coulter as saying: "We were terrified that Jones would settle. It was contrary to our purpose of bringing down the President."[155] After the book came out, Coulter clarified her stated motives, saying:
The only motive for leaking the distinguishing characteristic item that [Isikoff] gives in his book is my self-parodying remark that "it would humiliate the president" and that a settlement would foil our efforts to bring down the president ... I suppose you could take the position, as [Isikoff] does, that we were working for Jones because we thought Clinton was a lecherous, lying scumbag, but this argument gets a bit circular. You could also say that Juanita Broaddrick's secret motive in accusing Clinton of rape is that she hates Clinton because he raped her. The whole reason we didn't much like Clinton was that we could see he was the sort of man who would haul a low-level government employee like Paula to his hotel room, drop his pants, and say, "Kiss it." You know: Everything his defense said about him at the impeachment trial. It's not like we secretly disliked Clinton because of his administration's position on California's citrus cartels or something, and then set to work on some crazy scheme to destroy him using a pathological intern as our Mata Hari.[157]
The case went to court after Jones broke with Coulter and her original legal team, and it was dismissed viasummary judgment. The judge ruled that even if her allegations proved true, Jones did not show that she had suffered any damages, stating, "... plaintiff has not demonstrated any tangible job detriment or adverse employment action for her refusal to submit to the governor's alleged advances. The president is therefore entitled to summary judgment on plaintiff's claim ofquid pro quo sexual harassment." The ruling wasappealed by Jones' lawyers. During the pendency of the appeal, Clinton settled with Jones for $850,000 ($151,000 after legal fees) in November 1998, in exchange for Jones' dismissal of the appeal. By then, the Jones lawsuit had given way to theMonica Lewinsky sex scandal.
In October 2000, Jones revealed that she would pose for nude pictures in an adult magazine, saying she wanted to use the money to pay taxes and support her grade-school-aged children, in particular saying, "I'm wanting to put them through college and maybe set up a college fund."[158] Coulter publicly denounced Jones, calling her "the trailer-park trash they said she was" (Coulter had earlier chastened Clinton supporters for calling Jones this name),[159] after Clinton's former campaign strategistJames Carville had made the widely reported remark, "Drag a $100 bill through a trailer park, and you'll never know what you'll find", and called Jones a "fraud, at least to the extent of pretending to be an honorable and moral person".[158]
Coulter wrote:
Paula surely was given more than a million dollars in free legal assistance from an array of legal talent she will never again encounter in her life, much less have busily working on her behalf. Some of those lawyers never asked for or received a dime for hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal work performed at great professional, financial and personal cost to themselves. Others got partial payments out of the settlement. But at least they got her reputation back. And now she's thrown it away.[160]
Jones claimed not to have been offered any help with a book deal of her own or any other additional financial help after the lawsuit.[158]
Coulter's September 14, 2001, column eulogized her friendBarbara Olson, killed three days earlier in theSeptember 11 attacks, and ended with a call for war:
Airports scrupulously apply the same laughably ineffective airport harassment to Suzy Chapstick as to Muslim hijackers. It is preposterous to assume every passenger is a potential crazed homicidal maniac. We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invadetheir countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.[161]
These comments resulted in Coulter being fired as a columnist byNational Review, which she subsequently referred to as "squeamish girly-boys".[162] Responding to this comment, Ibrahim Hooper of theCouncil on American–Islamic Relations remarked in theChicago Sun-Times that before September 11, Coulter "would have faced swift repudiation from her colleagues", but "now it's accepted as legitimate commentary".[163]
One day after the attacks (when death toll estimates were higher than later), Coulter asserted that only Muslims could have been behind them: "Not all Muslims may be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims—at least all terrorists capable of assembling a murderous plot against America that leaves 7,000 people dead in under two hours."[164]
Coulter was highly critical in 2002 of theU.S. Department of Transportation and especially its then-secretaryNorman Mineta. Her many criticisms include their refusal to useracial profiling as a component ofpassenger security screening.[165] After a group of Muslims was expelled from aUS Airways flight when other passengers expressed concern, sparking a call for Muslims to boycott the airline because of theejection from a flight of six imams, Coulter wrote, "If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether."[166]
Coulter also cited the 2002 Senate testimony of FBI whistleblowerColeen Rowley, who was acclaimed for condemning her superiors for refusing to authorize asearch warrant for 9-11 conspiratorZacarias Moussaoui when he refused to consent to a search of his computer. They knew that he was a Muslim in flight school who had overstayed his visa, and theFrench Intelligence Service had confirmed his affiliations with radical fundamentalist Islamic groups. Coulter said she agreed thatprobable cause existed in the case, but that refusing consent, being in flight school and overstaying a visa should not constitute grounds for a search. Citing a poll which found that 98 percent of Muslims between the ages of 20 and 45 said they would not fight for Britain in the war in Afghanistan, and that 48 percent said they would fight forOsama bin Laden she asserted "any Muslim who has attended a mosque in Europe—certainly in England, where Moussaoui lived—has had 'affiliations with radical fundamentalist Islamic groups,'" so that she parsed Rowley's position as meaning that"'probable cause' existed to search Moussaoui's computer because he was a Muslim who had lived in England". Coulter says the poll was "byThe Daily Telegraph", actually it was by Sunrise, an "Asian" (therefore an Indian subcontinent-oriented) radio station, canvassing the opinions of 500 Muslims in Greater London (not Britain as a whole), mainly of Pakistani origin and aged between 20 and 45. Because "FBI headquarters ... refused to engage in racial profiling", they failed to uncover the 9-11 plot, Coulter asserted. "The FBI allowed thousands of Americans to be slaughtered on the altar ofpolitical correctness. What more do liberals want?"[167]
Coulter wrote in another column that she had reviewed thecivil rights lawsuits against certain airlines to determine which of them had subjected Arabs to the most "egregious discrimination" so that she could fly only that airline. She also said that the airline should be bragging instead of denying any of the charges of discrimination brought against them.[168] In an interview withThe Guardian she said, "I think airlines ought to start advertising: 'We have the mostcivil rights lawsuits brought against us by Arabs.'" When the interviewer,Jonathan Freedland, replied by asking what Muslims would do for travel, she responded, "They could useflying carpets."[58]
In the wake of theBoston Marathon bombing, Coulter toldHannity hostSean Hannity that the wife of bombing suspectTamerlan Tsarnaev should be jailed for wearing ahijab. Coulter continued by saying "Assimilating immigrants into our culture isn't really working. They're assimilating us into their culture."[169]
In March 2013, Coulter was one of the keynote speakers at theConservative Political Action Conference, where she made references to New Jersey GovernorChris Christie's weight ("CPAC had to cut back on its speakers this year about 300 pounds") and progressive activistSandra Fluke's hairdo. (Coulter quipped that Fluke didn't need birth control pills because "that haircut is birth control enough".) Coulter advocated against a path to citizenship forundocumented immigrants because such new citizens would never vote for Republican candidates: "If amnesty goes through, America becomes California and no Republican will ever win another election."[170][171]
Since 2013, Coulter has been a contributor toVDARE, afar-right website and blog founded by anti-immigration activist andpaleo-conservativePeter Brimelow.[172]Michael Malice has said that "Coulter and VDARE can be considered the furthest edge of theOverton Window" as any political position further to the right would be too heretical to find mainstream success.[173] VDARE is controversial because of its allegedwhite supremacist rhetoric and support ofscientific racism andwhite nationalism.[174]
Coulter initially supportedGeorge W. Bush's presidency, but later criticized its approach to immigration. She endorsedDuncan Hunter[175] and laterMitt Romney in the2008 Republican presidential primaries[176] and the2012 Republican presidential primary andpresidential run.[177] In the2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, she endorsedDonald Trump.[178] Coulter later distanced herself from Trump following arguments over immigration policies; she called for his impeachment in September 2017, saying "Put a fork in Trump, he's dead".[179] She described herself in 2018 as a "former Trumper";[180] in a 2020 speech to aTurning Point USA event, she said, "The Trump agenda without Trump would be a lot easier. Our new motto should be 'Going on withTrumpism without Trump.' That's a winning strategy."[181] Coulter blamed Trump's son-in-law and advisorJared Kushner for Trump's 2020 election loss, and said that Trump had failed to deliver for the white working class.[182] In August 2024, Coulter spoke out against Donald Trump saying he was an "awful, awful person.” However, she said she would vote for him in the 2024 election because she liked his running mateJD Vance and how we needed "a wall on the border". "Can’t trust Trump as far as I can throw him, but I do trust JD Vance to care about the left behind people”, Coulter said.[183]
Other candidates Coulter has endorsed includeGreg Brannon (2014 Republican primary candidate for North Carolina Senator),[184]Paul Nehlen (2016 Republican primary candidate for Wisconsin's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives),[185]Mo Brooks (2017 Republican primary candidate for Alabama Senator), andRoy Moore (2017 Republican candidate for Alabama Senator).[186]
 | This"criticism" or "controversy" sectionmay compromise the article'sneutrality. Please helpintegrate negative information into other sections or removeundue focus on minor aspects throughdiscussion on thetalk page.(May 2025) |
Coulter was accused ofantisemitism in an October 8, 2007, interview withDonny Deutsch onThe Big Idea. During the interview, Coulter stated that the United States is a Christian nation, and said that she wants "Jews to be perfected, as they say" (referring to them being converted to Christianity).[187] Deutsch, a practicing Jew, implied that this was an anti-semitic remark, but Coulter said she did not consider it to be a hateful comment.[188][189] Coulter's comments on the show were condemned by theAnti-Defamation League,American Jewish Committee andBradley Burston,[190] and theNational Jewish Democratic Council asked media outlets to cease inviting Coulter as a guest commentator.[191] Talk show hostDennis Prager, while disagreeing with her comments, said that they were not "anti-semitic", noting, "There is nothing in what Ann Coulter said to a Jewish interviewer onCNBC that indicates she hates Jews or wishes them ill, or does damage to the Jewish people or theJewish state. And if none of those criteria is present, how can someone be labeled anti-Semitic?"[192][193][194] Conservative activistDavid Horowitz also defended Coulter against the allegation.[195]
Coulter in September 2015 tweeted in response to multiple candidates' references to Israel during a Republican presidential primary debate, "How many f---ing Jews do these people think there are in the United States?"[196] The Anti-Defamation League referred to the tweets as "ugly, spiteful and anti-Semitic".[197] In response to accusations of anti-Semitism, she tweeted "I like the Jews, I like fetuses, I like Reagan. Didn't need to hear applause lines about them all night."[196]
In October 2001, Coulter was accused of plagiarism for her 1998 bookHigh Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton by Michael Chapman, a columnist for the journalHuman Events who claims that passages were taken from a supplement he wrote for the journal in 1997 titled "A Case for Impeachment".[162]
On the July 5, 2006, episode ofCountdown with Keith Olbermann onMSNBC, guest John Barrie, the CEO ofiParadigms, offered his professional opinion that Coulter plagiarized in her bookGodless as well as in her columns over the previous year.[198] Barrie ran "Godless" through iThenticate, his company's machine, which is able to scan works and compare them to existing texts. He found a 25-word section of the text that was "virtually word-for-word" matched with a Planned Parenthood pamphlet and a 33-word section almost duplicating a 1999 article from thePortland Press as some examples of evidence.[198] Barrie also said that it was "very, very difficult to try to determine whether Ann Coulter was citing that material or whether she was just trying to pass it off".[198]
Left-wing activist group[199]Media Matters for America has appealed to Random House publishing to further investigate Coulter's work.[200] The syndicator of her columns cleared her of the plagiarism charges.[201] Universal Press Syndicate and Crown Books also defended Coulter against the charges.[202]Columnist Bill Nemitz from thePortland Press Herald accused Coulter of plagiarizing a very specific sentence from his newspaper in her bookGodless, but he also acknowledged that one sentence is insufficient grounds for filing suit.[203]
In August 2024, Coulter received widespread criticism for a tweet with the comment "Talk about weird ...", referring to Democratic vice presidential nomineeTim Walz's 17-year-old son, who hasnonverbal learning disorder,[204] crying during his father's acceptance speech at the2024 Democratic National Convention.[205]Elizabeth Booker Houston launched a scathing viral rebuke.[206] Coulter's tweet was deleted shortly after it was posted.[207]
In a 2025 response onX to social commentary fromNavajo professorMelanie Yazzie speaking at the Socialism 2025 conference, Coulter tweeted, "We didn't kill enough Indians". Her comments were labeled hate speech byCherokee Nation Principal ChiefChuck Hoskin Jr.[208]
Coulter has been engaged several times, but she has never married and has no children.[28] After theSeptember 11 attacks, she dated a Muslim boyfriend.[209][non-primary source needed] She has datedSpin founder and publisherBob Guccione Jr.[49] and conservative writerDinesh D'Souza.[210][211] In October 2007, she began datingAndrew Stein, the former president of theNew York City Council, a liberal Democrat. On January 7, 2008, however, Stein told theNew York Post that the relationship was over, citing irreconcilable differences.[212]
In 2013 it was reported that Coulter was dating actorJimmie Walker. Coulter responded to the rumors by saying, "He's the one spreading that [dating] rumor! No, we're great friends. We do a lot of stuff together. … He is so hilarious, so I see him a lot when I'm in L.A., but we are not technically dating." In 2017,Norman Lear, who created the televisionsitcomGood Times in which Walker starred, said of Walker "I love him; he's a wonderful guy. But I'll tell you something about him that'll astound you: He dates Ann Coulter.” Coulter responded to Lear's comments by saying "This rumor spreads every now and then, but it's never been true. We're great friends. He's hilarious and a Republican. Now, that's news!”[213]
Kellyanne Conway, who refers to Coulter as a friend, toldNew York magazine in 2017 that Coulter "started dating her security guard probably ten years ago because she couldn't see anybody else".[214]
Coulter owns a house, bought in 2005, inPalm Beach, Florida, acondominium inManhattan, and an apartment in Los Angeles. She was a voter in Connecticut in 2004 before moving to Palm Beach.[215][216][217]
In a 2016 essay forThe Hollywood Reporter Coulter discussed her long-standing love of theGrateful Dead, saying she attended approximately 67 Grateful Dead shows, referring to herself as adeadhead, and explaining how fandom for thecountercultural band did not conflict with herconservative beliefs.[218]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)Two weeks ago, Obama's National Labor Relations Board made the gutsy call to file a complaint against Boeing for attempting to build a new airplane production plant in South Carolina -- a right-to-work state -- and demanding that the plant be opened in Washington state -- a dying Democratic pro-union state.
... Santorum supports a federal ban on partial-birth abortion -- a position I find to be an unholy abomination and a blatant violation of states' rights.
VDARE's web contributors have included noted conservative pundits lke Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, and Michelle Malkin, as well as noted white supremacists such as Jared Taylor and John Philippe Rushton ... While the friends it has acquired in politics and journalism have long protected VDARE from greater scrutiny, its digital record has gradually exposed its character as a racially consumed, xenophobic community
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