Raw Story

Political troublemakers at the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project trolled the former president again Friday, this time in an ad targeting Donald Trump's white nationalist and conspiracy-theorizing adviser Laura Loomer.

The far-right firebrand has been noticeably at the side of the former president for weeks and long-time Trump loyalists are begging him to reject her.

The ad states, "No one is more loyal than Laura Loomer. You won the debate that Laura Loomer prepped you for!"

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It then shows a woman's hands massaging a man's feet.

"She made you proud at the 9/11 memorial," the ad goes on. Loomer drew questions because she has commented that the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were an "inside job."

The commercial then showed a video of Loomer in Trump's arms as she leans in to kiss his cheek.

"She's your good luck charm," the narrator continues.

It claims that she's smarter than Trump's existing campaign managers and that Loomer is "yours."

"Totally yours. For anything you want," the Lincoln Project ad trolls.

Speculation abounded as Loomer and Trump "cozied up at Mar-a-Lago," though Loomer has denied any lurid rumors.

"And that's why they're trying to get rid of her," the ad continues, showing clips of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

Meanwhile, reports are that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and other GOP insiders have expressed concern that Loomer is close to Trump and advising him.

The Lincoln Project sardonically cast doubt on those questioning Loomer — "they're trying to stop her, which means they're trying to stop you."

See the clip of the video below or at the link here.

— (@)

This week, a Christian podcaster offered up what might be seen as a permission slip – or a "get out of jail free card" – for Republicans who have been lying to the American people: "enjoy it."

"It’s okay to use deception in service of defeating the left. It’s not sinning in order to do good. It’s being righteously shrewd in order to do good. It’s also okay to enjoy it. Lighten up."

It’s okay to use deception in service of defeating the left. It’s not sinning in order to do good. It’s being righteously shrewd in order to do good. It’s also okay to enjoy it. Lighten up.
— Josh Daws (@JoshDaws) September 17, 2024

Those are the words of Josh Daws, whose bio at Founders Ministries says he is "dedicated to helping Christians navigate the complex and rapidly changing cultural landscape through his biblically-based cultural analysis."

Daws "strives to provide insightful and thought-provoking commentary on current events and cultural trends on his podcast and Twitter. He hopes to be a valuable resource for those looking to engage with culture in a meaningful and informed way."

The tweet has been viewed well over a half-million times in just 48 hours, and it seems to sum up where the right and the far-right are at this moment in time – ethics be damned, the ends justify the means.

When a reporter for Politico on Wednesday confronted Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, the U.S. Senator for Ohio who has been spreading racist and dangerous lies about his own constituents – immigrants from Haiti legally living and working in the city of Springfield – falsely claiming they are stealing pets and eating them, he dug in his heels.

Donald Trump during the debate had lied, saying infamously off the Haitian immigrants, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating, the pets of the people that live there.”

The reporter reminded Vance that the Haitian immigrants, whom he has been calling "illegal migrants," are in the United States under a 1990 law signed by President George H.W. Bush, "so they are here legally."

The freshman junior senator made clear he did not care.

"Well, if Kamala Harris waves the wand illegally and says these people are now here legally, I’m still going to call them an illegal alien. An illegal action from Kamala Harris does not make an alien legal. That is not how this works,” declared the defiant Vance, who holds a law degree from Yale and knows that they are, in fact, here legally and the Biden Administration's decision to grant them protection means they are not, as he claimed, "illegal."

In short, Senator Vance was lying, and lying to a crowd, however small, who ate it up, cheering, applauding, and at times nodding in agreement.

RELATED: ‘Straight Up Fascist Project’: Vance Slammed for Vowing to Call Legal Immigrants ‘Illegal’

“This is just shocking,” declared former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, now a professor of political science. “Mr. Vance is blatantly calling a legal action illegal. I’ve studied my whole life how democracies break down. This is how it happens folks. I hope he really doesn’t believe this. Politicians say a lot of crazy things during elections. I fear he might.”

Senator Vance has been lying since Monday of last week, when he first promoted the racist "pet-eating" lie.

"Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country. Where is our border czar?" Vance asked on social media, referring of course to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for President, who has never been the "border czar."

Vance, or his staff, according to a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday, knew he was lying, or at least knew after his remarks were posted. They remain up to this day, never corrected or removed.

Over the weekend, Senator Vance, now infamously, told CNN, effectively, that he is willing to lie to promote his agenda.

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance told host Dana Bash.

“You just said that you’re ‘creating’ a story,” Bash responded, as The New Republic reported. “You just said that this is a story that you created.”

“Yes!” Vance replied, before twisting his own words in a nonsensical defense.

“We are creat—we are creating … Dana,” Vance said. “It comes from firsthand accounts from my constituents. I say that we’re ‘creating a story’ meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it.”

The New Republic's Greg Sergeant added, "JD Vance is also claiming that because of Haitians, communicable diseases in Springfield have 'skyrocketed.' I talked to the health commissioner in Clark County, where Springfield is located. Vance's claim is nonsense."

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Republicans outright lying have making headlines of late.

"The Real Reason Trump and Vance Are Spreading Lies About Haitians" (The Atlantic)

"How J.D. Vance Became Trump’s Pet Liar" (New York Magazine's Intelligencer)

"How the Trump Campaign Ran With Rumors About Pet-Eating Migrants—After Being Told They Weren’t True" (Wall Street Journal)

"One of the Republican Convention’s Weirdest Lies" (New York Times)

"The Grand Old Party of Liars" (The Nation)

There is, 0f course, Donald Trump, who lies so often the media stopped bothering to keep up. Questions have been flowing about his lies of late that are so off-the-wall and so provably-false, his grasp of reality is being called into question.

Wednesday night, in a rare on-camera, in-studio Fox News interview, Trump, (still talking about last week's debate,) falsely claimed the ABC News moderators corrected him, "I think nine times, or eleven times."

The right-wing New York Post reported Trump was fact-checked five times, not nine, not eleven.

CNN reported Trump made 33 false statements during the debate, Harris just one.

But it was Trump's next remark, also false, that has many calling into question not just his moral character, but his mental health.

"And the audience was, they went crazy."

There was no audience at that debate.

Trump on the debate: They didn’t correct her once and they corrected me, everything I said practically.. and the audience went absolutely crazy pic.twitter.com/H2SEsIDUg2
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 19, 2024

The Atlantic's Tom Nichols remarked: "How is it that Trump hallucinated an audience being present during the debate and we've just moved on as if this isn't a sign of a serious mental problem? Biden - wisely - agreed to step aside for far less than that."

On Wednesday, journalist and SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile wrote at Substack, "Why MAGA views blatant lying as a righteous and important act."

Signorile highlighted this recent lie by Donald Trump: "Think of it. Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child. And many of these childs 15 years later say, 'What the hell happened? Who did this to me?'"

“But uh the transgender thing is an incredible thing… your kid goes to school & comes home a few days later with an operation the school decides what’s going to happen with your child & you many of these childs 15 years later say “what the hell happened who did this to me?”
🤦🏻♀️ pic.twitter.com/BNyNscBgUB — Jennifer Jenkins Brevard (@JenkinsBrevard) August 31, 2024

Signorile noted Trump's claims were "so deranged and kooky—as if there are hospitals in schools or kids are being transferred to hospitals in the middle of the day from their classrooms—that many of us thought it was a clear example of Trump’s continued cognitive decline. He did, after all, say 'many of these childs' instead of 'children,' and that was more evidence of his faltering mental acuity."

But.

"But Trump repeated the claim again days later at a rally, continuing to push something that was deemed false even by his staunchest supporters," Signorile continued. "And that is a real tell."

He explains, "the goal of the lying by Trump and his running mate JD Vance," is "to hijack discussion and redirect it to issues they want to talk about, even if it means they are exposed as having told a lie."

Signorile says, "the MAGA masses are perfectly fine with that strategy. They don’t care about the lies being exposed because the lies are a means to an end."

As for Daws' s defense of using "deception in service of defeating the left," attorney Andrew L. Seidel writes, "I often speak about Christian Nationalism as a permission structure. For instance, CN gave the insurrectionists the moral and mental license they needed for the treasonous assault on our democracy on January 6th. Here is that permission structure laid out explicitly."

SiriusXM host John Fugelsang remarked, "I have never read a purer distillation of MAGA Christianity than 'thou shalt bear false witness.'"

Others have remarked simply, "Romans 3:8."

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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Trump-backed North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson has reportedly canceled his campaign events for Thursday amid what could be an explosive story.

Independent journalist Bryan Anderson, a former North Carolina Statehouse reporter for the Associated Press, brings word that there is "major drama" brewing in the North Carolina gubernatorial race as his sources indicate that a CNN report about the candidate "is coming" in the near future.

"I have a strong sense of what the news will be, but until sources speak on record and/or on background, I can't share what it is," Anderson added.

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Separately, the Carolina Journal reports that North Carolina Republicans are already putting pressure on Robinson to drop out before the story is even released.

"Sources with direct knowledge have spoken with Carolina Journal on the condition of anonymity and said that Robinson is under pressure from staff and members of the Trump campaign to withdraw from the governor’s race due to the nature of the story, which they say involves activity on adult websites in 2000s," the publication writes. "According to sources, Robinson has resisted withdrawing and privately denies the story."

Robinson has drawn controversy for his multiple inflammatory social media posts, including one where he accused Martin Luther King, Jr. of being a "communist" and another in which he accused pop star Beyoncé of being a "devil worshipper" who is sending her fans "on a fast track to hell."

Former President Donald Trump accused Vice President Kamala Harris of corruptly accepting campaign help from Iran in an all-caps message that included no evidence to back a questionable claim that the FBI rejects.

The Republican presidential nominee took to his social media site Truth Social Thursday morning to rant against the Democratic presidential nominee he claimed should face prosecution.

"WHEN DOES KAMALA AND HER CAMPAIGN GO BEFORE A GRAND JURY ON IRAN, IRAN, IRAN?" Trump wrote. "MY CAMPAIGN WHEN THROUGH HELL ON THE RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA HOAX. THE BIG DIFFERENCE IS THAT THE IRAN/KAMALA CAMPAIGN CORRUPTION CASE IS REAL!"

Trump referred to news that an Iranian group hacked his campaign in June and attempted to access Democrats' in an attempt to influence the U.S. election, as was confirmed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in August.

On Wednesday, NBC News reported new evidence that Iranians sent stolen Trump campaign materials to people associated with President Joe Biden's campaign, but there was not evidence Biden's campaign responded.

A Harris spokesperson told NBC the campaign was unaware of receiving material but some people had received what looked like a phishing attempt on their person emails.

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Three federal law enforcement sources confirmed to NBC the recipients never responded and may not have even opened them.

This reporting did not stop Trump Wednesday night from accusing Harris of spying illegally on his campaign.

The Republican nominee responded to the news in a decidedly Trumpian way.

“TO BE KNOWN AS THE IRAN, IRAN, IRAN CASE!" Trump wrote. "WILL KAMALA RESIGN IN DISGRACE FROM POLITICS? WILL THE COMMUNIST LEFT PICK A NEW CANDIDATE TO REPLACE HER?”

ALSO READ: 'Not what happened': Journalist fact-checks Trump's claim Harris 'illegally' spied on him

This take earned Trump an eye-roll from MSNBC analyst Steven Benen Thursday morning who noted — as the former president did not — that Iran targeted both campaigns.

"While Russia continues to target American elections in the hopes of putting Trump back in power, Tehran was an equal-opportunity hacker," Benen wrote.

"Trump sees this as an example of the Harris campaign 'illegally spying on' him, which is so utterly bonkers that it’s hard not to wonder whether the Republican understands what 'spying' means in English."

Benen also rejected the comparison to one of the several scandals that rocked Trump's 2016 presidential election.

"Team Trump welcomed, received, benefited from, and lied about Russian assistance," Benen wrote. "Team Harris didn’t welcome, receive, benefit from, or lie about Iranian offers of assistance, so the idea that the two are similar is absurd."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) unexpectedly called on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to work with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.

In a statement on Tuesday, Johnson said Republicans should support his plan to include the SAVE Act, legislation making it more difficult to vote, in a bill to fund the government. Senate Democrats and President Joe Biden have vowed to reject the measure requiring a birth certificate or passport to cast a ballot.

"I urge all of my colleagues to do what the overwhelming majority of the people of this county rightfully demand and deserve - prevent non-American citizens from voting in American elections," Johnson wrote.

Moments later, Greene raged at Johnson on X (formerly Twitter).

"This is classic bait and switch that will enrage the base, only one month before the election, when they find out they have been tricked and let down again," Greene claimed. "This would force a Gov shutdown on Oct 1 because Biden and Schumer both said they will shutdown the government as they are that adamant against the SAVE Act."

"Johnson is leading a fake fight that he has no intention of actually fighting," the Georgia Republican continued. "Even with a shutdown and full fight into Oct, it would be too late for the SAVE Act to make a difference for this election because absentee ballots would already be being mailed and early voting already starting."

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Greene said she refused "to lie to anyone that this plan will work and it's already DOA this week."

"Speaker Johnson needs to go to the Democrats, who he has worked with the entire time, to get the votes he needs to do what he is already planning to do," she concluded.

One of the nation's richest enclaves is seeking government assistance to help protect its most famous resident as his security costs have shot up to $93,000 a day.

Palm Beach County has asked the federal government to help cover security for Donald Trump, who lives at the private Mar-a-Lago resort and was apparently targeted for a second assassination attempt Sunday at a golf course nearby, reported Bloomberg.

“We’ve had to heighten security ever since the campaign started with the former president, who is our resident here,” said Palm Beach County mayor Maria Sachs. “Yes, it’s disruptive and difficult, but it’s the price we pay to live in paradise.”

The county has an $8 billion annual budget, but Sachs and county sheriff Ric Bradshaw sent a letter last week to congressional representatives asking for additional money to protect the Republican nominee, saying that cost $2.8 million of estimated overtime for a 30-day period for officers involved with his security.

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The letter also listed an estimated $42,720 cost to the local fire rescue department during motorcades and other times, as well as $3,600 a day spent by the city of Palm Beach.

The U.S. Secret Service and other federal agencies often mobilize personnel from local law enforcement and other sources when Trump and others under their protection are on the move, and those measures could be seen Monday in Palm Beach, where officers blocked off key streets around Mar-a-Lago.

The blockades often frustrate many residents, who have expressed concerns that a second Trump presidency could lead to additional restrictions when he is visiting, and the mayor even floated the possibility of closing Mar-a-Lago at a recent town council meeting.

“We are ready for whatever eventuality occurs,” Sachs said. “The candidates and future president will be safe in Palm Beach County.”