Laura Loomer Targets Indiana State Treasurer

Laura Loomer is feuding with the state treasurer here in Indiana, Daniel Elliott. That’s right—Laura Loomer. Many of you probably know her. She’s an investigative journalist and an internet influencer. She has the ear, the orbit—she’s friends with the president of the United States. I knew Laura Loomer years ago, before she was famous to the level she is now. Back on the old Sunday, Laura Loomer used to be a somewhat regular guest. We would talk with her about the investigative journalism she was doing. She was probably most famous at the time for going viral by attending Hillary Clinton book signings and somehow getting right up to Hillary Clinton and asking her questions. Then Laura Loomer essentially got deplatformed. She got canceled before 2020. She was taken off Twitter and other platforms for things she had said. This was when that was happening to a lot of people—people on the right, MAGA people, whatever you want to call them. Over time she got re-established on those platforms again, and she became a much more amped-up version of the person I knew from the Sunday show. Look, I follow her feed on Twitter. I think she’s very interesting and very entertaining. But what we’re about to talk about, I think she has some very bad information. While I find Laura Loomer interesting and valued her opinions when she was on our old shows, I think she has some very bad information here. And I think this can serve as a cautionary tale about when out-of-state internet influencers get fed bad information and start saying things about people they don’t know anything about. That can end up tainting really good people. Laura Loomer yesterday, for some unknown reason, essentially wrote what felt like a Dickens novel about State Treasurer Daniel Elliott. She referred to him as a “Pence acolyte” and posted a ten- or eleven-year-old photo of Elliott with Mike Pence when Pence was governor of Indiana. You can tell it’s old because Elliott has black hair and a black beard in the photo. You saw him just a few weeks ago on our show—it’s all gray and white now. It’s clearly a very old photo. I have photos from ten years ago with Mike Pence. I interviewed him when he was governor. I have photos from when I was the pharmacy board director. I have photos from when he was running for governor. Nobody is going to mistake me for being a Pence supporter or Pence acolyte. In this post—much of it about Mike Pence—Loomer says, quote, "As Indiana State Treasurer Daniel Elliott’s reelection date nears, it is expected that Elliott will attempt to sell his policies as “pro-MAGA” to Indiana voters, given President Trump’s unquestioned popularity in the Hoosier State. However, the facts show that Elliott has failed to uphold his oath and promise to Republican voters to stand for MAGA policies. Elliott’s policies have ushered in DEI in the state marketplace, while at the same time, Elliott embraced Mike Pence’s strategy of punting on the Indiana redistricting fight." Okay, stop there. Numerous polls show Donald Trump barely above 50 percent in Indiana. If he were on the ballot again, would he probably win the high-50s or around 60 percent like last time? Probably. Indiana is a Republican state. But I wouldn’t say Trump has unquestioned popularity when polls—including Republican pollsters—show him hovering around 50 percent. She then claims Elliott has failed to uphold his oath to stand for MAGA policies and that his policies have ushered in DEI in the state’s marketplace. That’s where we need to talk about what Daniel Elliott has actually done. If Daniel Elliott walked in front of Laura Loomer, she wouldn’t know him from Dan Aykroyd. That tells me she’s getting fed information. Because why would she wake up on a random Monday and decide to go after Daniel Elliott? He’s an obscure figure outside Indiana political circles. When you look at Elliott’s actual record, I think he’s done a pretty good job as state treasurer. Look at Rob Kendall opening a show by saying something nice about an Indiana politician. Loomer claims Elliott ushered in DEI. In reality, when he became treasurer he took a very high-profile and controversial position: kicking BlackRock out of Indiana’s public investments because of their liberal policies. He talked about this when he was on our show a couple weeks ago. Nothing about Elliott’s time as treasurer promotes DEI. In fact, he’s done the opposite, including taking on arguably the most powerful private equity firm in the world. He has also taken positions that line up with what many MAGA supporters say they want—taking on powerful corporations in defense of taxpayers. Recently he stood up to the Chicago Bears and their proposed stadium deal in Hammond. He bucked much of the Republican Party in the statehouse over giving billions of taxpayer dollars to the Bears. Elliott also took on lawmakers over plans involving how local governments invest their money. He pushed for more flexibility and better returns for taxpayers. That put him at odds with some lawmakers connected to the banking industry. He has repeatedly been one of the few people willing to challenge his own party when he believes taxpayers are getting a bad deal. So when Loomer says the opposite, the logical conclusion is that she doesn’t know Elliott’s record and is getting fed information. The question is by who. Who has Elliott been the biggest pain for recently? Probably Governor Mike Braun. Elliott has been one of the loudest voices opposing the Bears stadium proposal and other issues involving state investment. So when someone outside Indiana suddenly starts attacking the state treasurer, you have to ask: who is feeding that information? This isn’t an indictment of Laura Loomer as a whole. She’s done interesting investigative work. She’s been a good guest in the past. But I don’t think she has accurate information here. When outside influencers start commenting on local politics, they often don’t know the people involved. It’s like those old Japanese movies dubbed into English where the voice doesn’t match the mouth. The voice here is Loomer’s Twitter account, but the words sound like they’re coming from someone else. Daniel Elliott has not promoted DEI. He pushed BlackRock out of Indiana’s investments. He has opposed billions in taxpayer subsidies for the Chicago Bears. He has challenged lawmakers when he believed taxpayers were getting a bad deal. Hopefully someone who knows Laura Loomer can get the actual facts to her. Maybe she’ll have Elliott on her podcast and let him explain his record. Daniel Elliott is one of the few people in state government who should be applauded for his actions. We have to be careful when outside voices try to take people like that down. Look, if Laura Loomer wants to criticize Mike Pence, go ahead. But calling Daniel Elliott a Pence acolyte doesn’t match his record. He has governed more in defense of taxpayers than anything else.