Tomi Lahren Lashes Out at CMT Music Awards After Drag Queens Appearance

Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren lashed out at singer Kelsea Ballerini who performed onstage at the CMT awards with a group of high-profile drag queens.

Ballerini, who served as co-host of the awards show performed her hit "If You Go Down (I'm Goin' Down Too)" during Sunday's ceremony in Austin, Texas.

Alongside the singer were RuPaul's Drag Race alumni, Manila Luzon, Jan Sport, Kennedy Davenport, and Olivia Lux.

Ballerini's choice of song and accompanying performers was seen by many as sending a message to lawmakers across the country who are pushing to ban drag queen performances.

Her home state of Tennessee was the first to sign legislation that would ban "adult cabaret entertainment" in public areas where minors could see it. That move was dealt a blow when Judge Thomas Parker temporarily halted the law on Saturday just hours before it was due to take effect.

The push to ban drag queen shows comes amid conservatives' nationwide push for restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights, including regarding transgender health for minors and adults.

In Texas, where the country music awards were hosted, Republican State Representative Nate Schatzline sponsored a bill to amend the definition of a venue that hosts a drag performance and "authorizes on-premises consumption of alcoholic beverages" as a "sexually oriented business." Minors would not be allowed to enter such a venue.

Lahren was unimpressed with the drag queens' appearance and took to Twitter in a series of posts decrying their performance.

"Y'all just don't stop do you? Does everything have to be a platform to shove the rainbow mafia down our throats? Can you ever just do...idk...country freakin music?!!!!" she wrote on a retweet of the drag queens posing on the CMTs red carpet.

She later wrote: "The country music INDUSTRY has gone full woke despite actual COUNTRY MUSIC FANS not buying into any of this mess. RIP CMT."

And finally added: "Some of y'all blindly think this trans movement is about individuality and expression, no. It's a manipulative and sneaky way for big Pharma to have a lock on these people for the rest of their lives. Wake up."

However, Ballerini and the drag queens appeared to ignore the critics with their performance ending in rainbow lights and matching confetti.

The singer tweeted: "if you go down, i'm going down too ?️‍?// thank you to these iconic queens and... CMT for celebrating love, self expression, and performance."

Luzon told ET: "Just like all these amazing country music artists, we drag queens are also artists. And we deserve a space to be ourselves, express ourselves, and create something wonderful for everyone to enjoy."

Davenport told those watching to "continue to be your authentic self."

"We're still motivating young people, we're still inspiring them, we're still lifting them up because at the end of the day, we have a calling and we have a job as drag queens," she told ET.