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Conspiracy theorist said to have been key promoter of false rumour about immigrants ex-president repeated in debate

Republicans are blaming the influence of Laura Loomer, a rightwing conspiracy theorist, for this week’s botched debate performance by Donald Trump, which included the former president repeating a bizarre and unfounded claim that pet cats and dogs were being eaten by Haitian immigrants.

Loomer flew with Trump on his private plane to Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia and has been identified as a key promoter of the pets rumour, which has been dismissed as false by authorities in Springfield, Ohio, where the practice was alleged to have been taking place.

Loomer, who styles herself as an “investigative journalist”, last year promoted a conspiracy theory alleging that 9/11 was an”inside job”. On Wednesday she posted an unfounded allegation that Harris had worn earphones disguised as earrings during the debate.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

If he wasnt such a weak minded shithead he wouldve not wasted anyones time with that crap

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

First step in learning some critical thinking skills instead of blindly believing every MAGA bandwagon idiot.

[–] [email protected] 113 points 1 week ago (5 children)

There's a leopard-ate-my-face quality to this. Acting surprised when crazy conspiracy theorists are invited into the campaign.

It's rich that it's MTG pushing back though, the infamous peddler of Jewish space lasers theories.

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[–] atzanteol 87 points 1 week ago (4 children)

BUT HE HEARD IT ON THE TV!

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I love that that was his excuse while he was simultaneously on tv being told by someone else on tv that it wasn't true lol.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That comment was almost even better than the "they're eating pets" one. How absolutely insane that someone running for Commander in Chief would think "I saw it on TV" is a good defense on a fact check.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And the way he said it, all whiny, like it isn't his fault if the racist lie he repeated isn't true because his source of information is both unimpeachable and not his responsibility.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago

"But the TV said it so it's not my fault for saying it again!"

It's kind of like Tucker Carlson's approach with "I'm just asking questions." No, you're spewing bullshit and trying to spin it as curiosity.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

THEY'RE. EATING. PETS.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

Man, woman, camera, heard it on tv.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

weird boomer

[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Trump knew it was bullshit. He just forgot that his audience wasn't his brainwashed supporters.

Either that or he actually believed it was real. And I don't know which one is worse.

[–] [email protected] 73 points 1 week ago (6 children)

I think he absolutely believed it. The "But I saw it on TV!" seemed 100% genuine.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

last year promoted a conspiracy theory alleging that 9/11 was an”inside job”.

How did this one go from leftists in the early 2000's who thought Bush and Cheney ignored intelligence to let it happen to unhinged conspiratorial right wingers spouting the same bullshit. Leftists back then blamed it on warmongering and letting it happen so Bush could use the excuse to become a deeply loved "war President" (It worked... for a while) and Cheney could make a mint with no-bid contracts for Halliburton to rebuild Iraq. That... at least made some sort of sense. What's the right-wing excuse for it being an inside job?

It's like right-wingers decided to exploit valid distrust in the news media as stenographers for the government to make everyone crazy. The thing that's crazy about it working is the distrust was sewn by them to begin with and then they turned around to exploit that same distrust. How do people not see that??

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

go from leftists

I never got the impression that 9/11 conspiracy theories were from leftists, though I could be wrong. I thought it was from everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I had every right winger freaking out that Bush and Cheney were beyond reproach and nothing could be further from the truth at the time. I lived in Louisiana and I learned to just shut the fuck up about it because people fucking loved Bush more than their own god damned families. Honestly, the environment wasn't that much different from what we're dealing with in terms of Trump.

Now it's fucking gospel for half of the right wing. I don't get it.

Although to be fair, Alex Jones was promoting that stuff at the time, and he's been the throughline in the last 20 years. But people also assumed he was a leftist back then, too. The people showing me his Prison Planet videos in 2004-2005 that crowed that Bush was building prison camps were all super leftist people.

Actually, to be clear, this guy is the first person who ever showed me Alex Jones/Prison Planet:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whatever-happened-to-pizza-at-mcdonalds/id1152856686

https://open.spotify.com/show/7pbtiktDvlEAyFHT7KR98Y

Brian Thompson of the Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald's podcast. He was my neighbor and coworker at a local news station. He almost got fired because he was working the chyron and had jokingly changed it from "Donald Rumsfeld - Secretary of Defense" to "Donald Rumsfeld - War Criminal" and then accidentally put the joke on the air. Generally people who considered the Bush admin guilty of war crimes weren't right wingers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Ok you're moving around a lot. This was about 9/11 conspiracies. Not love of Bush, not prison camps, not war crimes, (a lot of all that is the some people playing into the "you're either with us or against us"). Those are all different than 9/11 conspiracies.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I brought up Jones because he was one of the main purveyors of 9/11 conspiracy theories as well as other conspiracy theories.

Love of Bush means you won't buy the conspiracy, because you think Bush is a hero and wouldn't do any such thing. That was the majority of conservatives at the time. Bush was so fucking popular he won the popular vote in 2004, something most other modern Republican Presidents have failed to do, relying on Electoral College wins. Despite the release of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 in May 2004, a full 5 months before the election. (Michael Moore is traditionally leftist...)

Believing the Bush administration committed war crimes was absolutely tied to believing that we had entered unjust wars over false pretenses.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Love of Bush means some won't buy the conspiracy. That does not rule out that 9/11 conspiracy theories could come from the right. They are not a harmonious group.

Just like entering the wars on WMD is different than 9/11 conspiracies.

You're really all over the map, so I think I'm out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Does this sound like a right wing conspiracy theorist to you? https://youtu.be/NWxISwEBU0U

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Funny, I just mentioned PNAC in another post earlier today.

I am never going to not believe bush/Cheney/runsfeld were in some part aware of/responsible for what happened.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Oh, same. There was boatloads of evidence that they just sort of... let it happen so they could exploit the situation. PNAC outlined that they needed "another Pearl Harbor." They were honestly just as open as Project 2025 but back then no one took it as seriously as that even though they amount to the same thing.

That's why it's so fucked that it has become a right wing conspiracy...

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

MTG is just happy she finally found someone (slightly) more racist than her:

“If @KamalaHarris wins, the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center and the American people will only be able to convey their feedback through a customer satisfaction survey at the end of the call that nobody will understand,” Loomer wrote.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Good grief. The next few months cannot pass fast enough.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Your sweet old aunt and uncle support these people. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Take a better look at a trump rally. This has nothing to do with age.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Well, a lot of them are paid to be there.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

In today's news of "Every accusation the GOP makes is an admission of guilt":

GOP accuses immigrants of eating pets, while today the GOP began eating its own pet, Laura Loomer.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

She may be the idiot that kick-started the conspiracy but certainly was not alone thinking it was a winning attack.

AZ GOP booked 12 billboards in the Phoenix Metro area with this bs.

https://www.axios.com/local/phoenix/2024/09/10/arizona-republican-party-haitians-pet-eating-rumor-billboards

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Former Arizona GOP chair Robert Graham told Axios the billboards are a "complete waste of money" because few voters are familiar with the rumors in the first place.

  • "When you're in election time you're trying to inspire people to vote for your candidate, not make them solve a puzzle," Graham said. "Republicans have a healthy message, or could have — it's jobs, opportunity, prosperity, safety. We believe Republican governing principles are the best. We don't need to put cow suits on the words."
  • Graham, who partially lived in Haiti for 11 years, said he didn't think most people would find the billboards offensive, though, "I would take offense if I was Haitian, for sure."

Wow. A GOP using and making sense.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Now you know why he’s “Former”.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Fuck that. Trump knows she is a conspiracy theorist. He doesn't care.

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