Laura Loomered the NSA
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Who is Laura Loomer and why is she influential?
When President Trump fired Timothy Hawk, the head of the National Security Administration and U.S. Cyber Command last week, he didn't say why. But Laura Loomer, who'd met with Trump a day earlier, took credit. She said on Twitter that Hawk was disloyal to President Trump. Laura Loomer, chaos agent, activist, proud Islamophobe, her words, influencer, trickster, trespasser.
I'm just really confused. You're on private property, so you're trespassing. I'm really confused. Nancy said everyone was welcome here. Did you know who Nancy Pelosi is? Yes, I do.
She has Trump's ear, maybe even his respect. You don't want to be loomered. If you're loomered, you're in deep trouble. And she's just getting started in Washington. That's ahead on Today Explained.
Megan Rapinoe here. This week on A Touch More, we are launching our much-anticipated book club, and we're doing it with Abby Wambach and Glennon Doyle, who will introduce their upcoming book, We Can Do Hard Things, Answers to Life's 20 Questions. Plus, we've got some fun and important updates from The W and the NWSL, and of course, we've got a new Are You a Megan or Are You a Sue? Check out the latest episode of A Touch More wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube.
It's Today Explained. I'm Noelle King. And some of the best reporting I've seen on Laura Loomer comes from The Wall Street Journal's Vera Bergen-Gruen. Vera is a national security reporter who also covered the online right for a time. And so she knows her Laura Loomer lore.
Laura Loomer is a far-right Internet personality. She kind of defies characterization, to be honest.
I am the most censored person in this country, hands down, if not the most censored woman in the world.
She's only 31, which seems to surprise a lot of people because she's been around for a long time. And she's from Arizona and kind of has built a whole career ever since she graduated from college out of being Donald Trump's hatchet woman on the internet and doing these publicity stunts and these kind of shock tactics against anyone she thinks is this loyal to President Trump.
There's a story about Laura Loomer that I heard a while back that I really love. When she was in college, she tried to start a chapter supporting ISIS on her college campus.
An honors student at Berry University told instructors she wanted to start that group to help promote education in the Islamic State, but she was working undercover for a nonprofit. Project Veritas alleges the school is sympathetic to the terror group ISIS, and they argue a secretly recorded video taken by a student proves it.
Laura Loomer is like, she's like a prankster. Tell us about some of the pranks.
Exactly. And it's clear she's always been this way. She's not someone who necessarily picked it up recently from once these things became popular, right? But she seems to be a big fan of, you know, Project Veritas, you know, which is another kind of right-wing stunt outfit, for lack of a better word.
James O'Keefe with Project Veritas. You're on camera here talking about giving anal sex toys and butt plugs to little children. Sir, why are you running? Why are you running away?
But she basically loves to do these very public things things that she films on video. For example, she tried to vote wearing a burqa under the name Huma Abedin, who was Hillary Clinton's aide in 2016, to make a point about voter fraud. And these things always push very much towards offensive and towards, you know, just really attention-calling.
What are some notable actions and stunts by Laura Loomer?
Why are you supporting the weaponization of governments against President Trump? My name's Laura Loomer.
Gosh, you're the crazy person.
I'm the crazy person? I think you're the crazy person supporting the weaponization of governments against Donald Trump. You don't need to run for president, you need to get on a treadmill and run.
She disrupted a production of Julius Caesar in 2017 in Central Park.
Because they were trying to make, they were being satirical about Trump and she didn't like that.
I'm protecting our Constitution. I'm using my constitutional right of free speech and protest to protest against the bastardization of Shakespeare, really.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Who is Laura Loomer and why is she influential?
0:01–3:57
2
What are some notable actions and stunts by Laura Loomer?
3:57–6:50
3
How did Laura Loomer establish a connection with President Trump?
6:50–9:48
4
What role does loyalty to Trump play in Laura Loomer's activism?
9:48–11:07
5
Where does Laura Loomer fit within the far-right political spectrum?
11:07–13:06
6
What happened during Laura Loomer's White House meeting with Trump?
13:06–13:48
7
How did Laura Loomer's actions impact the firing of the NSA head?
13:48–25:22