Last updated on August 20, 2020
In other GOP nonsense, Trump is spending time in battleground states trying to get airport rallies to substitute for Tulsa-like covid-spreader events. But the marginal stories are the ones that a desperate Trump is trying to give air, as if that will compensate for losing pretty much everywhere. Trump congratulating Laura Loomer is not yet Tennyson on the Charge of the Light Brigade, but that’s what you get with his tweets. Anything to distract from Volume 5 of the Senate Intel report.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer won the GOP House primary in Florida’s 21st Congressional District, handing the Republican Party a controversial nominee in a safe blue district.
Loomer pulled in front of a crowded field of Republicans to win the nomination in the heavily blue southeast Florida district, according to The Associated Press. She will face off against Rep. Lois Frankel (D), who ran unopposed in 2018 and won with more than 60 percent of the vote in 2016.
Loomer becomes the Republican nominee in a district that includes President Trump's club in Mar-a-Lago. The president and first lady Melania Trump are registered voters in Palm Beach Country, and both submitted vote-by-mail ballots for Tuesday's primary.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2020
After her 2018 ban from Twitter, she handcuffed herself to Twitter's headquarters in New York for two hours before police cut through the handcuffs at her request.[2][14][15] Loomer was also banned from the March 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) after she attempted to heckle reporters after chasing them through the conference.[16]
She described herself on Twitter at the time as a “#ProudIslamophobe” and called for a complete and permanent ban on Muslims entering the United States.[26]
In February 2019, Loomer traveled to Minnesota with Jacob Wohl, a far-right conspiracy theorist who has previously made high-profile false claims about public figures.[32] Loomer and Wohl stated they were investigating a false and debunked conspiracy theory which held that Omar, U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district and a Somali-American, had married her brother so that he could obtain U.S. citizenship.[33][34] Vox debunked Loomer and Wohl's conspiracy theory as “largely nonsensical”, citing that there is no evidence that Ahmed Elmi, Omar's ex-husband whom Loomer and Wohl claimed to be her brother, was related to Omar in any way; that U.S. law permits a citizen to petition citizenship for their siblings, voiding the need for a marriage; and that Elmi, a British citizen, has never received U.S. citizenship.[34] Loomer had previously accosted Omar with the false rumor at the October 2018 campaign event.[27] On Instagram in 2019, Loomer uploaded a video about Omar, blaming her and all Muslims for the September 11 attacks and asserting “Muslims should not even be allowed to seek positions of political office in this country”.[26]
Right Wing Watch reported that donations solicited by Loomer were going to the address of The United West, an organization which the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as an anti-Muslim hate group.[35][36] The Council on American–Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization, also refers to The United West as “Islamophobic“.[37]
“We are in a fight for the survival of our nation and civilization itself,”
The president is busy during the Democrats' virtual convention this week. Trump is visiting at least five battleground states – Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Iowa – as the Democrats convene via video to nominate Joe Biden.
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 18, 2020
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