Laura Loomer, a conservative commentator issued a warning to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his 2024 presidential campaign financing on Monday.
"I cannot even begin to explain to you how excited I am for the FEC reports to drop so I can go through @NvrBackDown24 and @RonDeSantis's reports with a fine tooth comb," Loomer said in a tweet. "A lot of people are going to become internet sensations once we start taking a look at the special interest money that was given to Ron's campaign."
I cannot even begin to explain to you how excited I am for the FEC reports to drop so I can go through @NvrBackDown24 and @RonDeSantis’s reports with a fine tooth comb.
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) July 3, 2023
A lot of people are going to become internet sensations once we start taking a look at the special interest…
The comments by Loomer, who is a strong supporter of former president Donald Trump, come shortly after the non-partisan organization, the Campaign Legal Center, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission claiming that DeSantis violated campaign finance laws by transferring money to two different PACs.
In a complaint, the Campaign Legal Center alleged that DeSantis transferred $80 million from the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC to his 2024 presidential campaign PAC, Never Back Down.
"The transfer of this colossal sum from a state PAC that DeSantis established and used to raise over $225 million, to a federal committee that has spent, and plans to continue spending, millions of dollars supporting DeSantis' own campaign is a brazen attempt to circumvent the federal campaign finance rules that are crucial to preventing corruption and establishing transparency about how our federal elections are financed," the complaint said.
The alleged transfer of money is illegal under the Federal Election Campaign Act as officials are not able to transfer money raised by nonfederal organizations for federal elections.
A spokesperson for the FEC previously told Newsweek that the agency was barred from being able to "discuss or comment on potential complaints due to confidentiality requirements and agency policy,"
A spokesperson for the Never Back Down PAC told Newsweek on Monday, "Laura Loomer should be paid directly by the Trump campaign instead of secretly off the books. After all, she does much better work than that one guy everybody rolls their eyes at and who got caught lying about his January 6 tweets."
Earlier this year, DeSantis announced his bid for the presidency as a Republican nominee, challenging Trump.
A weekly updated 2024 Republican primary tracking poll from Morning Consult shows DeSantis trailing Trump by several points. According to the poll, 57 percent of respondents are supporting Trump at this time and just 19 percent are siding with DeSantis. Following behind the Florida governor is former Vice President Mike Pence (7 percent) and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley with 3 percent. The survey was conducted June 23-25, 2023, among 3,650 potential Republican primary voters, with an unweighted margin of error of +/-2 percentage points.
Shortly after announcing his bid for the presidency, DeSantis faced criticism from Trump who coined the nickname "Ron DeSanctimonious."
In May, DeSantis spoke about Trump saying that the former president "is a different guy today than when he was running in 2015 and 2016."
"I don't know what happened to Donald Trump," DeSantis added while speaking with Tennessee radio host Matt Murphy.
Update: 7/3/23, 3:10 p.m. EST. This story has been updated to include a statement from the Never Back Down PAC.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
