'Conspiracy theorists and unhinged bigots' are racking up wins in GOP primaries: political scientist

Trump-loving candidate Laura Loomer won her primary race to represent the Republican Party in Florida's 21st Congressional District, and a political scientist is warning that she's just the latest "unhinged bigot" to triumph in a GOP primary.

Brian Klaas, an associate professor of global politics at University College London, notes on Twitter that Loomer and Georgia GOP candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene both won Republican primaries this summer despite having long histories of promoting crazed conspiracy theories.

Greene, for example, has floated the false claim that the Pentagon was not actually struck by a hijacked airplane in the September 11th terrorist attacks, while Loomer implied that a deadly school shooting in Santa Fe, New Mexico was staged.

The two have also expressed bigoted attitudes toward Muslims, with Loomer in particular labeling herself a "proud Islamophobe."

To make matters worse, Klaas notes that both candidates have received explicit endorsements from President Donald Trump.

"Trump is retweeting praise of Laura Loomer, a far-right racist extremist who has called Muslims 'savages,' from Marjorie Taylor Greene, an unhinged open QAnon supporter," he writes on Twitter. "This is what the modern Republican Party has become: conspiracy theorists, racists, and unhinged bigots."

Klaas is also imploring journalists to not whitewash these candidates' extreme views.

"This is something that many journalists haven't adapted to: the job is to be objective," he writes. "If someone is clearly a racist, call them a racist. Racist bigots might still win elections, but they shouldn't get the help of journalists who paint them in a rosier light than they deserve."