Two teams of CNN analysts reacted Thursday and Friday to MAGA influencer Laura Loomer‘s sit-down meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling it an example of “edgelord diplomacy.”
On Friday, Loomer shared a video of her full, 40-minute meeting with Zelenskyy on her X account. The meeting marked a major shift in Loomer’s stance on the Ukraine-Russia war, after years of saying that she did not care about the Ukrainians’ plight and even going so far at points as to call Zelenskyy “more of a dictator than an elected leader.” It was with all that in mind that CNN analyst S.E. Cupp expressed both confusion and concern over the meeting.
“The whole thing’s odd and interesting,” Cupp said during Thursday’s edition of “Erin Burnett Outfront,” adding, “Look, if she’s going to do propaganda, I’d rather it be Zelenskyy’s version of propaganda than Putin’s, okay? She was regurgitating all the Putin propaganda before. So was Tucker Carlson. All the Far Right was.”
“I’m very curious, concerned about how this all came to be,” Cupp continued. “I don’t know how this came to be, and I’d be curious if she went as an envoy for Trump. Did she go as a podcaster? Did she go as a private citizen?” Fellow panelist and former Obama advisor David Axelrod, meanwhile, highlighted it as an act of unorthodox diplomacy on Zelenskyy’s part.
“All I could think of is, ‘My goodness, the things one has to do to save their country.’ I think he decided this is something he had to do,” Axelrod explained. “They call her an influencer, but the person she influences that he cares about is Donald Trump. If this is what it takes, then this is what he’s going to do.”
Speaking on the subject Friday with “CNN This Morning” host Audie Cornish, CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams took a more “cynical” view of the meeting.
“We live in a culture of memes and the internet,” Williams noted. “It’s edgelord diplomacy, and Laura Loomer has been more masterful than anyone else at capitalizing on the media and people’s ability to click on her stuff. To some extent, this is trending. It’s behavior designed to get attention, and she’s done it.”
“The reason this is trending and we’re all interested is: Does this actually signify that there is a change of tone materially from this administration, which has been hostile to Ukraine on this issue, and the MAGA universe writ large?” fellow “This Morning” panelist Lulu Garcia-Navarro responded.
During his appearance on “Erin Burnett Outfront,” political analyst Astead Herndon said the meeting seems emblematic of a current shift in political alignment not just for Loomer but for the entire MAGA movement.
“This is someone who’s anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric has been so core to their politics,” Herndon noted of Loomer. “But she’s had a big fight with Tucker Carlson. I think this is partly about putting distance between her and him, and I think it kind of reflects where [the] MAGA lane has transitioned.”
“They couldn’t be against aid to Ukraine while also supporting other kinds of U.S. role in intervention, particularly when we think about Israel’s role in the Middle East,” Herndon concluded. “I think you’re seeing her represent the new wave in which they’re willing to defend the U.S. on both sides.”