MSNBC's Morning Joe highlights Trump's embrace of “reprehensible racist” Laura Loomer
Willie Geist: “This is not a casual relationship. This woman is flying on the plane to the debate with Donald Trump.”
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From the September 12, 2024, edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe
JONATHAN LEMIRE (CO-HOST): I want to go back to this idea of this ecosystem, this small, shrinking right-wing fever swamp where Trump lives that leads him to say things about eating cats. Erick Erickson, a conservative commentator who we talk — we quote ever so often on this show, he, in a rage on Twitter the other night, said, look what you've done, yelling at Trump's aides, saying, you're showing him this stuff. You're allowing him to believe this stuff, and all it's doing is alienating the actual voters he needs to win, who not only have no idea what he's talking about, but thinks it makes him look crazy. And then Trump in response, conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, a 9/11 truther, joined Trump yesterday on his flight to New York for the Ground Zero September 11 commemoration.
ED LUCE (GUEST): He hangs out a lot with Laura Loomer. We can mention other names even more familiar or older, standing ones like Stephen Miller who have similar worldviews. But Laura Loomer is somebody who tweeted something so racist, so nasty about Kamala Harris and the White House smelling of curry and call centers taking the calls if she became president, that even Marjorie Taylor Greene asked her to take it down. Now, if you offend Marjorie Taylor Greene, I didn't think that was possible, and Marjorie Taylor Greene thinks you've gone too far, then that says something. And this is the kind of person Donald Trump is hanging out with.
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WILLIE GEIST (CO-HOST): Charlie, the woman that Ed and Jon are mentioning here is a reprehensible racist. She calls herself a proud Islamophobe, conspiracy theorist on everything from 9/11 to school shootings and everything else. The tweet, which we won't read because it's so deeply ugly, gets at Kamala Harris' heritage, her identity. The fact she's half Indian. Leave it there. Gets into all the ugliest possible stereotypes about that. But this is not a casual relationship. This woman is flying on the plane to the debate with Donald Trump. We could also point out that Vice President JD Vance is cozying up to people and sort of making excuses for someone entertaining the idea that actually Churchill was the villain of World War II and not Adolf Hitler. These are choices. This is not a retweet of somebody, this is not accepting an endorsement and pretending you don't know the person. This is elevating these people.
CHARLIE SYKES (GUEST): And it is extraordinary. Laura Loomer is not just a bigot, she is a freak. She is at the far edges of the fever swamp as Ed just mentioned. Even Marjorie Taylor Greene described her as racist and offensive. And yet Donald Trump is associating with her, these are the kinds of people who have his ear right now. So at this moment of the campaign, I mean think about this we're less than two months away from the election, Donald Trump is associating with some of the craziest, weirdest figures on the right.