Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner said Tuesday that he was blocked from a scheduled oversight meeting at a spy agency in Virginia after interference from far-right activist Laura Loomer.
Warner, D-Va., said the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency visit scheduled for Friday was called off after Loomer launched public attacks on him and the NGA’s director, Vice Adm. Frank "Trey" Whitworth.
“This is the kind of thing that happens in authoritarian regimes,” Warner told reporters on Wednesday.
Loomer, who holds no official post in the administration but portrays herself as a guardian of the president against political enemies, took credit for the cancellation on X. She demanded that Whitworth be fired for having planned to meet with the Democratic senator.
“Whitworth’s scheduled September 5th fireside love fest with anti-Trump Democrat Senator @MarkWarner Mark Warner has been CANCELED!” she wrote.
She wrote that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth "should fire Trey Whitworth for insubordination."
Warner first flagged the incident in a statement late on Tuesday, calling it a “nakedly political decision” that “undermines the dedicated, nonpartisan staff at NGA.”
Speaking to a small group of reporters, Warner said the decision to cancel the meeting came from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office, not from the National Geospatial Agency leadership.
The senator was told that such visits needed to be “bipartisan” and not carried out by a member of one political party, Warner said.
A Defense Department official said "the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency visit was rescheduled, not canceled, in order to accommodate bipartisan participation in the town hall event."
Warner said the incident raised serious questions about whether Congress could still exercise its oversight role and ensure the country’s intelligence agencies could deliver impartial assessments without political interference.
“If none of my Republican colleagues raise an issue, does this mean we are ceding all oversight?” Warner said.
“You have almost a caricature of a right wing blogger calling the shots on intel and national security,” he said, referring to Loomer. He added: “It’s insane. It’s totally insane.”
The NGA declined to comment.
The visit to NGA’s headquarters was not publicized and was classified, which Warner said meant that someone had leaked the information to Loomer, who holds no position in government.
“How did a trolling blogger get access that there was a classified meeting going on?” Warner said.
Warner said he had not yet had a chance to discuss the matter with his colleague Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Cotton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Warner said he believes he was blocked from meeting NGA leaders and employees “because I’ve consistently stood up for the independence of the intel workforce, that they should not have to cook the books to create intel that’s favorable for this administration.”
Warner said that he has routinely visited the offices of U.S. intelligence agencies for years under both Republican and Democratic presidents - including during Trump's first term - and that the visits were never questioned until now.
Warner represents Virginia, which is home to several intelligence services, including the CIA and the NGA. He said many of the employees at the spy agencies are his constituents.
