Mark Warner is firing back at Laura Loomer after the MAGA troglodyte used her considerable influence over Donald Trump to scuttle a classified intelligence briefing.
“Over the weekend, conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer discovered the unpublicized, classified visit and launched a campaign of baseless attacks against both me and NGA Director Vice Admiral Trey Whitworth for hosting what has always been considered a routine oversight meeting. In response to Loomer’s criticism, political appointees canceled the visit, just the latest example of an administration seemingly desperate to please Loomer, a figure with a long history of extreme and outlandish fringe views, including 9/11 denialism, anti-Muslim harassment campaigns, and associations with white supremacists,” Warner said in a statement issued by his Senate office late Monday night.
Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he had arranged an on-site meeting at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency headquarters in Northern Virginia for this coming Friday “weeks ago” – a routine listening session that the senator said he has conducted “under both Democratic and Republican presidents, including during President Trump’s first term.”
“Engagements such as these are a core part of my responsibility to provide oversight and support to our intelligence community and hear from Americans who live in Virginia, and they have never been questioned or politicized, until now,” Warner said.
Loomer, on Twitter, took care of the politicization, characterizing a video that Warner had posted online about his visit to the Farmville ICE detention center as a “video advocating for illegal alien MS13 gang banger Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is facing deportation to Zohran Mamdani’s home country of Uganda.”
It appears that her real issue wasn’t so much with Warner, but rather, Whitworth, who she blasted for “hosting Russia Hoaxer Senator Mark Warner” for the listening session.
The rest of what makes sense to Loomer from that tweet:
“Why are Intel agencies under the Trump admin celebrating and giving a platform to pro-illegal alien Senators who hate Trump and push for illegal alien criminals to stay in the US? What the hell is going on with the vetting in this admin? Why hasn’t Biden appointee Trey Whitworth been FIRED?? Why is he allowed to use his position to host hyper partisan Trump haters from the Democrat Party to the NGA UNDER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION???? This just reeks of malice and suggests there are many people inside the Pentagon and IC who are deliberately trying to sabotage President Trump.”
The decision by the pols in the Trump administration to cancel the oversight meeting at Loomer’s beck and call “undermines the dedicated, nonpartisan staff at NGA and threatens the principle of civilian oversight that protects our national security,” Warner said.
“Members of Congress routinely conduct meetings and on-site engagements with federal employees in their states and districts; blocking and setting arbitrary conditions on these sessions sets a dangerous precedent, calling into question whether oversight is now allowed only when it pleases the far-right fringe. This should concern Republicans as well as Democrats: if routine oversight can be obstructed for political reasons, no member of Congress is immune,” Warner said, before concluding:
“Let me be clear: I will never be deterred from carrying out my constitutional responsibilities. The business of government and the security of our nation will not be dictated by extremist attention-seekers. I will continue to hold the government accountable and meet with the career intelligence professionals who keep our country safe.”
Support AFP
Share
Chris Graham
