I Spent Presidents' Day Resenting Laura Loomer, Glued to Candace Owens, Mourning Gabby Petito, & Cursing Meghan Markle

Homework: Watch Candace’s interview with Xavier Poussard—the journalist who exposed the secrets of the mysterious individual who has become “Brigitte”—so we can discuss it in threads on Thursday.

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There was no BBQ this Presidents’ Day.

After D.C., I came home drained from an exhaustion that stretched from my joints to the fried stems of my cerebral cortex.

It’s been four days. I still can’t go online right now without wincing. Mindless scrolling is suddenly unappealing, verging on unbearable. Everything is too loud, too frantic, too doomsy, too invasive. Or it’s just the bad songs polluting everyone’s feed. Cyber burnout was inevitable, I suppose, after a year of nonstop engagement—every hour of my day connected to someone or something. DMs, calls, emails. Even luxury destinations offered no real rest.

Right now, I’m craving quiet reflection. I honestly don’t remember what a vacation (outside of work) even looks like.

Because my brain is begging for a hard reset, I’ll be prioritizing that this month in hopes of quelling creeping online anxiety.

In the meantime, I’m always happy to be here, airing spontaneous grievances as they arise.

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LOOMER + MUSK

It started this weekend when I could not bring myself to want to pick up my phone. I managed to host a friend’s birthday, but the next day, I couldn’t even make coffee, let alone open my laptop. Instead, I spent the entire day on my office couch, blinds drawn, watching TV with Hayes like I used to—avoiding news of another fiery plane crash and the woman who slept with 1,000 men in 12 hours and political updates that don’t pause for weekends or holidays. I was in such a bad mood I cut off a Cybertruck on purpose.

My pent-up frustrations landed first on Laura Loomer, who took a sharp turn by attacking single mothers in response to Ashley St. Clair’s baby announcement—setting every single mom I know on fire. Rightfully so.

WTF was that about?

Loomer’s Message: “As a woman, I'd rather die childless than live with the scourge of being a single mom. I can’t imagine a bigger misery than raising a child I’d only resent. I would hate myself for the rest of my life if I ever became a single mom.”

Other Quotes: “Single motherhood is nothing to be proud of. If you say it is, you’re coping with your own terrible choices.”

“Because they are miserable with the life they chose, they have to post pictures on social media to validate their decisions—when deep down, they resent them. Personal lives are supposed to be PERSONAL for a reason.”

Hilary Crowder Responded: “What an absolutely demonic take. Cruel bullying disguised as ‘personal preference.’ Sometimes women make all the ‘right’ decisions and still end up as single mothers. We do not live in a world of moral predictability.”

Loomer Fired Back: “Not going to take advice from a loser mom whose only claim to fame was baby-trapping and then crying about him raising his voice in a leaked video. How about you accomplish something of value aside from getting knocked up by a famous man? @hilcrowder Pathetic woman.”

Her sheer cruelty in these slides disgusted me—the way she tore into women to justify railing against Ashley, who, by the way, defended Loomer during her feud with Elon over HBI—after he stripped her monetization for criticizing him. Ashley, while not always in agreement with Laura, had called Elon’s actions unjust and immature.

Loomer’s remarks set the single mothers of the internet (and those in my texts) ablaze. But it earned her a follow-back from Elon—who she’s now reposting with praise.

And just like that, my opinion of her changed. Yet again.

Loomer Concluded: “Women will pretend like they are heroes for having babies out of wedlock & subjecting their kids to a life of dysfunction instead of admitting they made a terrible mistake they refuse to acknowledge.

I don’t care how many women attack me for my comments. It’s 100% true.”

The Offended Responded: “I can't wait for someone to make Laura Loomer a single mom.”

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GABBY PETITO DOCUMENTARY

I was hesitant to click on the new Netflix doc detailing the murder of Gabby Petito, but I did so anyway. Her story—my tracking of it—is still one of the most referenced when people approach me to say how they first found my work. It’s always either Depp, Ghislaine, or this poor girl’s murder—a gruesome love story turned murder-suicide that bonded me to a larger portion of the internet, glued to the mystery as it unfolded in real time in the summer of 2021.

The hunt was designed for online sleuths. The home videos dragged us in. The imagery was familiar: a modern, You-Tube ready romance of a young couple’s wanderlust and desire for online attention, traveling the desert in a converted van.

Going back over the timeline pulled me into a dark place. Midway through, I regretted watching it. Covering Gabby’s story messed with my head. I couldn’t sleep, and I was haunted by the sinister theories taking shape daily on Instagram that I helped arrange as part of this internet-wide hunt to track down her killer. Essentially, it was an online collective that solved it.

Fast forward four years and everyone is a detective now. It’s become an oversaturated focus point. Brutal slayings bring clicks. As someone who isn’t a fan of true crime, it affected me in ways I didn’t expect, to the point that I blocked out much of it.

That said, the documentary is well done.

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One person noticeably absent from it? The officer who pulled them over in Moab—Eric Pratt.

Weeks before Gabby’s murder, she and Brian Laundrie were stopped by an officer who questioned them about their dispute. Both Gabby and Brian said she had instigated the fight. As a result, the officer took Brian to a hotel for the night and left Gabby with their van.

As some of you may recall, once the case was turned over to the FBI, Eric confided in me—anonymously—about why he made the decision he did and how it affected him afterward, tracking the murder from another vantage point once it crossed state lines. We went over every frame. He said he trusted me over all of the networks trying to interview him. It was my first big source who chose me over other media. For weeks, we spoke candidly, leading up to the search for Brian, which Eric tracked secretly on his own, hiking through the swamps looking for any sign of him.

The details in the doc remind you how crazy it all was: The parents refusing to help Gabby. The family camping trip, the “burn after reading” letter from his mother, the way his remains were found with the waterproof backpack stocked with faded Polaroids of them in love. The lie he told about her suffering and crying to be put out of her misery like a wounded dog when really he strangled her and then laid her body out in an open lot in the fetal position, wrapped in a sweater for a stranger to find.

Eric’s decision that day is still partially blamed for Gabby’s death. The insinuation is that Gabby Petito would still be here if the police had recognized she was in distress and needed more than just a bottle of water.

Eric to Hello Magazine: “If I would have known [Laundrie] was going to murder her, I would have taken a vacation to follow them because I care about people. I would have intervened and citizens-arrested him in Wyoming! I would have taken my own time. I would have missed my family to go do that.”

The investigation found that Officer Pratt and his colleague made several mistakes in their handling of the incident. During the exchange, a smiling Brian claimed that Gabby had tried to grab the keys from him, and he had held her face to push her away while driving—to defend himself.

Meanwhile, Gabby was hysterical, yet cooperative. She asked if she could call her mother. She explained that she was struggling with anxiety and OCD. She even admitted to lashing out at Brian.

The investigation did not lay blame on the responding officers but recommended additional domestic violence investigation training, as they failed to classify the incident as domestic abuse and did not make any arrests—despite clear evidence of a physical fight.

I got to know him as a man of sound conscience with a daughter of his own, dealing with national blame piling on him.

I didn’t write about it for a year after; to this day, still not in the detail it deserves.

I just hope he’s doing okay on the other side of it.

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CANDACE’S EXPOSE - BECOMING BRIGITTE

Much easier to discuss if you watch the series. Hayes did.

Our minds are blown. This is possibly one of the most convoluted twists of all time. It involves long-protected lies, examining family photo mysteries, switched identities and genders, mass media coverups, digging through old yearbooks, asking AI who is really who, and the bigger question of how the hell we let the love affair between a 39-year-old woman (or man, depending on what you trust) and a 14-year-old boy slip by all of us.

Watch the series so you can join our chat Thursday to discuss.

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AS EVER: MEGHAN MARKLE ONLY GETS WORSE

Meghan Markle is again back in the lifestyle game after her American Riviera Orchard brand hit a little snag in the trademarking department. Claiming ownership over a commonly used nickname for Santa Barbara didn’t fly with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Who knew?

So, in classic Markle fashion, she pivoted. Enter As Ever, the rebranded venture she unveiled on Instagram with a heavily produced yet casual backyard video. Prince Harry made a brief cameo as an off-screen voice stating the obvious—“It’s recording”—while Meghan, looking effortlessly curated, declared: “The cat’s out of the bag.”

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She explained that the original name, American Riviera Orchard, just wasn’t expansive enough for her vision. Her Santa Barbara surroundings inspired it, but that connection also made it legally problematic. Trademark officials weren’t thrilled about her attempt to monopolize a widely used place name, mainly since other businesses already use “American Riviera” to sell products. Add to that some bureaucratic confusion over whether her “cocktail napkins” were paper or fabric, and the whole thing became a bit of a mess.

After multiple delays, she finally scrapped it and went with As Ever—a name she conveniently “secured” back in 2022 but, you know, waited for the perfect moment to reveal.

The timing, of course, lines up with the launch of her new Netflix lifestyle series, With Love, Meghan, premiering March 4. She described the rebrand as part of a more extensive partnership with Netflix, because why only do a show when you can also turn it into a business opportunity?

For those nostalgic for The Tig, Meghan’s old blog from her pre-royal days, As Ever promises a return to form. “If you’ve followed me since 2014, you know I’ve always loved cooking and crafting and gardening,” she reminded her audience, as if her stint as a duchess never interrupted the whole domestic influencer vibe.

As for what’s actually being sold? Jams, for starters. Meghan assured her fans that preserves are still a thing—“I think we’re all clear at this point that jam is my jam,” she quipped. But rest assured, there’s so much more to come.

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Up Ahead: BTS confirmation at the White House with Tulsi Gabbard, a phone call with Brett Cooper, a DOGE introduction, update with Nick T, how the art of lobbying has shifted in the Trump era, in office with Anna Paulina Luna, and more.