As a politician, it's important to have a multitude of skills. You're going to deal with all sorts of people from different backgrounds and they're not all going to agree with you. You need people skills, you need an ability to listen and discern quickly, and - apparently - it really helps if you've run an auction house or two and can talk really, really fast.
During Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's congressional testimony, Laura Loomer stood up and shouted interruptions. She claimed that Twitter was trying to steal or sway the election and begged Donal Trump for help. Of course, she did it while recording herself on her phone, which she held with a selfie-stick. That matters later, we promise.
If you don't know who Laura Loomer is, we're here to help! She's an Alt-Right protester, self-proclaimed "investigative journalist", Alex Jones bestie, and conspiracy theorist. Her beef with Twitter started late last year when the social media corporation took away her beloved "verified" check mark. The check mark is used to denote the confirmed accounts for public figures. It helps Twitter users to do things like discern the official Queen Bey Twitter account from the 488 "Bee-On-Say" accounts. It's like a little nod from Twitter, and Laura was big mad when she lost hers. Interestingly, Jason Kessler and Richard Spencer lost their check marks the same day Laura did. It was like some sort of Alt-Right Twitter purge.
According to Twitter, it can take someone's verification if the person is found to be "promoting hate and/or violence against, or directly attacking or threatening other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease ... inciting or engaging in harassment of others."
Since losing her verified status, Laura has made it her personal mission to take Twitter down.
So when she found out both the Twitter CEO and COO would be testifying before Congress, she grabbed her selfie stick and away she went to do her thing. Her thing didn't really get too far thanks to Rep. Billy Long. As Laura started to talk over proceedings he initially responded with confusion, then stated that he couldn't understand her. Once he realized what she was trying to do he figured he would reach into his old bag of tricks and stage his own sort of counter-protest.
Rep. Long started pretending to auction things off; up to, and including, her cell phone and beloved selfie-stick. The moment was captured from a few different angles and is being heavily shared on - of course - Twitter.
The "auction" ended once security was able to remove Laura from the room. Rep. Long immediately yielded back to proceedings. There was a fair amount of laughter and applause - both in the room that day and on Twitter right now. Even people who hate his politics are applauding this moment.
No word on if, or when, Laura will get her check mark back. We won't hold our breath.
