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The administration rescinded the invitation after Loomer initiated a “campaign of baseless attacks” against him and the agency’s director, Trey Whitworth, he said.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.”