Far-right internet personality Laura Loomer went on social media to condemn U.S. House Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee with hateful, racist remarks shortly after the congresswoman passed away.
Lee, a Texas Democrat and longtime representative, passed away at the age of 74 last week, family members announced on July 20. She died one month after announcing she was undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer.
A progressive force in Congress, Lee was a steadfast champion of women’s and civil rights from the time she started serving in Congress in 1995, sponsoring and promoting legislation addressing law enforcement reform and domestic violence.
Loomer, a stalwart Donald Trump supporter and right-wing firebrand, tweeted about Lee’s death the day it was announced, calling Lee a “ghetto b****” with a “low IQ.”
“Even on her death bed, this ghetto b**** couldn’t keep President Trump’s name out of her disgusting mouth,” Loomer tweeted on X. “I’d say rest in peace, but we all know lying democrats who have destroyed our country are going to hell.”
Loomer posted the rant in an apparent response to a tweet Lee posted to her X account just before her death criticizing Trump.
Loomer’s response drew both backlash and support. Many who opposed her comments talked of the rightwinger’s lack of common decency when addressing the dead, while several others directly challenged her racism.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democratic congressman from New York, ripped her flagrant bigotry and tweeted there’s a “special place in hell for Laura Loomer.”
“These are the words of rabid racist who represents everything that is rancid and rotten about the far right,” Torres wrote on X.
Against the mounting criticism, Loomer only doubled down on her remarks in a follow-up tweet.
“I stand by what I said. Everything I said is true. I will always defend President Trump from attacks by low life Democrats who are only in office because of their skin color,” Loomer wrote. “I also meant what I said about Sheila being a ghetto b****. Let’s not give her sympathy just because she’s black and dead.”
Loomer is a twice-failed congressional candidate whose extremist views have repeatedly been promoted by Trump on his social media accounts in the past, including numerous conspiracy theories about the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol attack. She’s also posted anti-Muslim and anti-immigration sentiments and spread misinformation about several mass shootings.
Loomer is seen as a controversial figure, even by MAGA supporters and Republican operatives, but despite their criticisms, the former president still showed her favor. She was invited to travel with Trump to multiple events over the years, including a campaign rally in Iowa in January, where he publicly praised her as “a very important person, politically.”
She was backed by Trump in 2020 when she ran for a House seat in Florida but lost to Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel. She ran again in 2022 for a House seat in a different Florida district but never made it past the primary.
