Senator Mark Warner’s planned visit to a military spy agency was reportedly derailed after extreme right-wing conspiracy pusher and President Donald Trump hanger-on Laura Loomer complained about his visit.
Warner is the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He planned to visit the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency last week at its Virginia headquarters, but Pentagon officials told his office that his trip was off.
The Pentagon also imposed new requirements for congressional visits to its military intelligence facilities, the New York Times reports.
Under U.S. law, members of Congress have the authority to visit federal agencies for the purposes of oversight. The Trump administration has attempted to bar members of Congress from visiting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detainment facilities — which resulted in lawsuits challenging the president’s actions.
But the facility Warner was trying to visit isn’t well-known to the public, isn’t a cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s agenda, and isn’t mired in controversy.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency analyzes spy satellite imagery and collects intelligence on anything from foreign troop movements to terrorist activities.
Yet Warner was still barred from entry.
“Is congressional oversight dead?” Warner asked during a discussion with reporters on Wednesday. “This is a dangerous time. If we are not doing oversight, if the intelligence is potentially being cooked or being bent to meet the administration’s needs, and we end up in a conflict — the American people have the right to say, ‘How the hell did this happen?’”
Warner wasn’t looking to make a spectacle of his visit. His trip was classified and there was no plan — until now — of letting the public know he was heading to the agency’s headquarters.
According to Warner, he was planning to have a meeting with Vice Admiral Frank Whitworth, who heads the agency, regarding the use of artificial intelligence in image analysis.
“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,” Warner told reporters.
He continued, saying that 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.”
On Sunday, Loomer wrote a social media post complaining about Warner over his previous criticism of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. She also attacked Whitworth for agreeing to meet with him.
“Why are the Pentagon and IC allowing for the Director of an Intel agency to host a rabid ANTI-TRUMP DEMOCRAT SENATOR at NGA under the Trump administration?” Loomer wrote. “Clearly, a lot of Deep State actors are being given a pass in the Intel community to continue their efforts to sabotage Trump under the Trump admin.”
On Wednesday, Loomer told the New York Times that Warner should be “removed from office and tried for treason” because he was part of the Senate Intelligence Committee that examined the ties between Trump and Russia around the time of the 2016 election.
When Loomer was reminded that current Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also on that committee and asked if she too should resign, she gave him a special exception because he made nice with Trump.
“Well, [Rubio] should apologize, too. Everyone should. But at least Rubio has made amends with Trump and is working in his administration,” she told the paper.
Loomer wrote on social media that Whitworth should be dismissed because he committed an “act of insubordination” by taking a meeting with Warner.
“@PeteHegseth should fire Trey Whitworth for insubordination,” Loomer wrote in a post on X.
Warner, during his discussion with reporters, pondered how a “trolling blogger” — Loomer — could learn of his classified visit to federal spy agency.
Loomer holds no official position within the U.S. government or military. She is simply cozy with the president.
When he asked the Pentagon to explain why his trip was cancelled, Warner said he was told it was because he planned to visit the agency without a Republican lawmaker in tow.
A defense official told the NYT that Warner’s visit would be rescheduled when a Republican lawmaker was available to accompany him.
The Independent has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.
Warner had made previous trips to the facility with Republicans including Rubio — when Rubio was in the Senate — and Senator Richard Burr, but he said there was never a previous bipartisan requirement to visit in an oversight capacity, noting that he’d made plenty of trips on his own.
The senator said Loomer’s influence on Trump administration officials is disturbing.
“You have this outside person that prior to this administration was viewed as a joke consistently going through the intelligence community and knocking off folks,” he said.
