Tomi Lahren Says She Kicked Her Dog Five Times During Fox Appearance

Conservative pundit Tomi Lahren said she kicked her dog at least five times during a Fox & Friends appearance on Wednesday.

The 25-year-old South Dakota native posted a video on her Instagram Story, showing her dog Kota wagging her tail on a bed.

“Why don’t you tell the world what you were doing during my entire Fox & Friends hit,” Lahren told the dog in the video, posted by The Wrap. “Oh I know, chewing on her damn bone as loud as she possibly could. So I had to kick her about five times during the show.”

Kota did not appear to sustain any significant injuries. According to PEOPLE, she posted another Instagram Story, showing herself petting Kota.

“If you don’t think little Kota gets treated like a queen, you clearly don’t know little Kota,” Lahren said in the second video. “That’s for dang sure. Right, Kota?”

Lahren later told TMZ she did not actually kick her dog. When told that people were upset by the video, Lahren said she thinks people “understand that it was a joke.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Anyone who knows me knows that I love my dog more than anything in the world,” Lahren told a TMZ videographer. “Absolutely ridiculous. It’s a slow news day for you guys, isn’t it?”

This was not the first time Lahren’s Instagram Story stirred controversy. In January, she called Rep. Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts “that little limp d—” who looked “a helluva lot like pre-Caitlyn Bruce Jenner?”

Lahren later apologized, tweeting, “My comments on my personal Instagram about Kennedy’s response were inappropriate and I take full responsibility for that. I got too upset. I sincerely apologize.”

While Lahren thought people would take it as a joke, many on Twitter did not.

“Tomi Lahren posted a video admitting she just kicked her dog *5* times because it was chewing its bone ‘too loud,’” one Twitter user wrote. “Animal cruelty typically foreshadows other disturbing behavior. But in Tomi’s case, we already knew she’s evil.”

“Only a heartless person would kick a dog just for doing what dogs normally do — and a reasonable person would simply have moved out of the way or moved the animal,” PETA senior director of cruelty casework Stephanie Bell said in a statement to The Hill.