Senator Mark Warner said on Wednesday that a meeting he had scheduled at the headquarters of a US intelligence agency was cancelled following online attacks by the far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer.
Warner, the Democratic vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, was set to visit the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Virginia in what he described part of his “responsibility to provide oversight and support to our intelligence community”.
The administration rescinded the invitation after Loomer initiated a “campaign of baseless attacks” against him and the agency’s director, Trey Whitworth, he said.
“I can’t overstate how unprecedented and dangerous this is,” Warner said in a fundraising email. “This administration is taking its marching orders from Laura Loomer – a wackjob with a long history of outlandish fringe views, including 9/11 denialism, anti-Muslim harassment campaigns, and associations with white supremacists.”
Loomer posted on social media in recent days complaining that the director of an intelligence agency was hosting a “rabid ANTI-TRUMP DEMOCRAT SENATOR”. She celebrated the cancellation, calling Warner a threat to national security and arguing he should be removed from the Senate committee.
“He weaponized our intelligence agencies to push the debunked Russia Collusion Hoax,” she wrote.
She told the New York Times Warner should “be removed from office and tried for treason”.
Warner told reporters that the decision to cancel the previously unpublicized meeting was made by the office of the defense secretary.
The incident illustrates Loomer’s enduring influence within Donald Trump’s administration. The 32-year-old, who has previously described herself as “a proud Islamophobe”, has acted as a national security and foreign policy adviser to the president. In April, Trump fired six staffers after Loomer gave him a list of people she believed were not sufficiently loyal to the president.
Last month, the administration announced it was planning to stop issuing visas to children from Gaza seeking medical care after complaints from Loomer.
Warner argued that Loomer is “basically a cabinet member at this point” and that Trump and his administration were “caving to whatever she wants”.
“This nakedly political decision undermines the dedicated, nonpartisan staff at [the] NGA and threatens the principle of civilian oversight that protects our national security,” Warner said in a statement.
“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.”
