NEWNow you can hearken to Fox Information articles!
Republican Kentucky lawmaker Andy Barr’s 2021 declare that the U.S. had an “obligation” to welcome Afghans after the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal is resurfacing and complicating his high-stakes 2026 Senate marketing campaign after the footage went viral.
“We have now failed in our obligation to assist many of those Afghans who risked their lives and, in lots of instances, died for the reason for their very own nation in help to the US, and we owe them to assist them get into our nation with these visas, and the P1 and P2 visas as properly,” Barr mentioned in a 2021 interview with Kentucky Academic Tv of Afghans. “And I voted for these particular immigrant visas as a result of it might ship a horrible message to our allies around the globe that we’re going to desert you for those who assist us in your time of want.”
Many Afghans labored as interpreters, cultural advisors and supplied different help to the U.S. throughout the Afghan conflict. Dozens of Republican lawmakers and leaders supported welcoming Afghan allies amid the withdrawal, whereas concurrently stressing the necessity to vet the refugees, together with then-former President Donald Trump.
Barr’s 2026 Republican Senate opponent, Nate Morris, slammed him as having “blood on his fingers” for his feedback and former assist of a invoice broadening particular visas for Afghan refugees.
STATE DEPARTMENT ‘IMMEDIATELY’ HALTS ALL AFGHAN PASSPORT VISAS FOLLOWING DEADLY NATIONAL GUARD ATTACK
Inside Abbey Gate, British and American safety forces keep order amongst the Afghan evacuees ready to depart, in Kabul, Aug. 25, 2021. (Marcus Lam/Los Angeles Occasions/Getty Pictures)
However Barr’s marketing campaign hit again towards the criticisms in a remark to Fox Information Digital, underscoring he didn’t vote for Biden’s Afghan resettlement program and that he wholeheartedly helps Trump’s immigration insurance policies.
“Andy Barr voted towards Biden’s Afghan resettlement program,” the spokesperson mentioned. “Andy Barr helps President Trump’s frequent sense border safety plan — deporting all illegals and reforming our authorized immigration system.”
‘SEE THE RESULTS’
Footage of Barr’s interview has unfold like wildfire on social media. It is racked up tens of millions of views following the horrific capturing in Washington, D.C., the day earlier than Thanksgiving when two Nationwide Guard members had been shot, leaving one soldier critically injured and leaving Military Spc. Sarah Beckstrom lifeless.
Authorities recognized Afghan nationwide Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, because the suspect within the capturing, which unfolded simply blocks from the White Home.
Lakanwal entered the U.S. legally in 2021 beneath the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome, a program that evacuated and resettled Afghan refugees because the Taliban took management of Afghanistan. He reportedly labored with numerous U.S. authorities entities, together with the CIA, as a member of a companion pressure in Afghanistan, Fox Digital beforehand reported.
Different refugees who entered the nation beneath Operation Allies Welcome have been arrested for suspected terrorist ties. The Division of Homeland Safety introduced Wednesday that ICE arrested a suspected ISIS-Okay Afghan terrorist, marking the third “Afghan nationwide terrorist arrested in current days.”
Barr got here beneath fierce scrutiny on-line not too long ago as his 2021 feedback unfold.
“WTF!???” Donald Trump Jr. posted to X on Black Friday.
“Andy Barr voted to flood America with unvetted Afghans whereas our borders had been broad open. Now we see the outcomes. This blood is on institution RINOs (Republican in title solely) like Barr who sided with Biden & McConnell over America First,” one other conservative account posted.
Others pointed to the remarks as proof that Barr shouldn’t be elected to the Senate throughout the 2026 midterms. Barr is amongst a handful of Republicans operating to switch retiring Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Some Barr critics rallied round Morris, the CEO of Kentucky-based firm Morris Industries, because the conservative candidate to switch McConnell.
Rep. Andy Barr (R-Okay.Y.) is amongst a handful of Republicans operating to switch retiring Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures)
“Evaluate Barr to Nate Morris who is asking for an immigration moratorium and there’s actually no comparability,” Turning Level USA spokesman and govt producer of “The Charlie Kirk Present” Andrew Kolvet posted to X. “That’s why Charlie went out of his option to endorse @NateMorris. Our primary mission have to be to avoid wasting America, not destroy it by way of unfettered mass migration.”
VANCE’S PAST WARNINGS REIGNITE AFTER AFGHAN NATIONAL NAMED AS SUSPECT IN DC GUARD SHOOTING
Morris mentioned, “Barr is aware of that he has been uncovered for his function serving to Biden convey these harmful Afghan refugees to America and so now he is attempting to faux that it by no means occurred, however we have all seen the video footage. Similar to Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell, Andy Barr has blood on his fingers.”
Turning Level USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, proper, joined Nate Morris because the businessman launches a 2026 Republican marketing campaign for the Senate, in Shepherdsville, Kentucky on June 30, 2025. (Nate Morris marketing campaign)
Barr’s marketing campaign hit again at Morris’ remarks in feedback to Fox Digital Wednesday, together with highlighting that the lawmaker didn’t vote for an Afghan resettlement program beneath the Biden administration.
“Nate Morris is spiraling and mendacity once more,” a Barr marketing campaign spokesperson informed Fox Information Digital.
“Andy stands with Trump 100% on immigration; Nate Morris doesn’t. If Nate Morris doesn’t assist President Trump’s insurance policies 100%, he can’t be trusted to vote with him within the U.S. Senate.”
Barr voted towards H.R. 5305 in September 2021, which offered greater than $6 billion to resettle Afghan refugees, past individuals who assisted the U.S. throughout the conflict.
He was amongst 192 Republicans who supported the Averting Lack of Life and Harm by Expediting SIVs Act of 2021, which expedited the particular immigrant visa course of for Afghan nationals who labored with the U.S. authorities or NATO in Afghanistan and elevated the variety of out there particular immigrant visas to eight,000.
The invoice handed the Home, however didn’t turn out to be regulation. President Joe Biden as a substitute signed a spending invoice that added 8,000 Afghan particular immigration visas and eased a few of its guidelines.
On Aug. 29, 2021, the Biden administration launched Operation Allies Welcome, a Division of Homeland Safety led-project to “assist weak Afghans, together with those that labored alongside us in Afghanistan for the previous 20 years, as they safely resettle in the US.”
President Joe Biden delivers remarks from the Roosevelt Room of the White Home in 2024. (AP Picture/Evan Vucci) (Evan Vucci/The Related Press )
Trump dropped the hammer on the visa program shortly after the current D.C. capturing that came about on the finish of November.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned Monday that officers are “actively re-examining” all of the Afghan nationals who entered the U.S. throughout the Biden administration. Greater than 76,000 Afghans had been evacuated and processed into the nation, Fox Information Digital beforehand reported.
Barr printed a press release denouncing the capturing in Washington, D.C., whereas concurrently providing his assist to Trump for vowing to pause immigration purposes from “Third World Nations.” The Trump administration formally halted immigration purposes from 19 nations on Tuesday.
“President Trump is correct to pause immigration from nations we will’t vet. As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, ‘If we will’t vet them, they don’t belong right here.’ That’s why I voted towards Biden’s $6 billion Afghan resettlement bundle that rushed unvetted arrivals into the nation. President Trump is cleansing up Biden’s mess and I absolutely assist him,” Barr mentioned within the Friday assertion, which additionally supplied his condolences to Beckstrom.
Morris continued in his feedback to Fox Digital that the “way forward for Western Civilization is at stake.”
Nate Morris, former CEO of Rubicon Applied sciences, speaks on stage for Know-how Tackling Waste throughout The 2022 Concordia Annual Summit. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Pictures for Concordia Summit)
“I have been campaigning on an immigration moratorium and a plan to deport all illegals since I launched my marketing campaign for U.S. Senate,” he mentioned. “I am honored to say that it was one of many fundamental causes that Charlie Kirk endorsed my marketing campaign at our launch occasion.”
EX-FBI SPECIAL AGENT EXPLAINS AFGHAN VETTING FAILURES IN WAKE OF NATIONAL GUARD AMBUSH: ‘TICKING TIME BOMB’
“My opponent, Andy Barr, alternatively, truly went on TV just some months in the past and referred to as me a ‘nativist’ for supporting an immigration moratorium. In 2021, whereas President Trump, Vice President Vance and all the MAGA motion was preventing to cease Biden from bringing Afghan refugees into our nation, Andy Barr was siding together with his “mentor” Mitch McConnell and telling Kentuckians that we ‘owed it’ to the Afghan individuals to convey them right here,” he mentioned.
Fox Information Digital additionally reached out to Republican former Kentucky Legal professional Common Daniel Cameron’s Senate marketing campaign concerning Barr’s 2021 feedback.
“Kentuckians bear in mind precisely what occurred throughout Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Andy Barr is a basic say no matter it takes Washington politician. He is voted with Nancy Pelosi over 1,200 instances in Congress and was strongly supportive of opening broad our borders to unvetted Afghans throughout Biden’s reckless and harmful withdrawal. Daniel Cameron would have by no means voted for that,” Cameron’s Senate marketing campaign mentioned.
Cameron’s workforce added that Morris is “a pretend on immigration” who “would not have any actual beliefs — simply no matter is politically handy to him.”
The marketing campaign added that Cameron “has by far essentially the most conservative report on unlawful immigration,” citing how he sued the Biden administration for “dismantling President Trump’s border insurance policies” when he served as state legal professional basic, fought the Customs and Border Safety “One App that streamlines unlawful entry” and the Biden administration’s “illegal abuse of immigration parole.”
‘A DEBT OF HONOR’
The Afghan withdrawal extensively has been seen as one of many greatest failures beneath the Biden administration, leaving 13 U.S. service members killed on the Abbey Gate bombing, in addition to abandoning tens of millions of {dollars} in army tools that in the end landed within the fingers of the Taliban.
Refugees from Afghanistan are escorted to a ready bus after arriving and being processed at Dulles Worldwide Airport in Dulles, Virginia, Aug. 23, 2021. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Pictures)
ALLEGED DC SHOOTER ENTERED US UNDER AFGHAN RESETTLEMENT PUSH MAYORKAS VOWED WOULD BE DONE ‘SWIFTLY AND SAFELY’
However Barr wasn’t alone. Different Republicans additionally signaled assist for welcoming Afghans to the U.S. in 2021, together with former Vice President Mike Pence, who mentioned on the time throughout an interview on Fox Information: “We owe a debt of honor and gratitude to each one of many Afghan troopers who stood with the courageous women and men that fought in Afghanistan.”
Some Republicans, reminiscent of now-Vice President JD Vance, nonetheless, predicted the plan might finish in catastrophe. Vance was not but elected to the Senate on the time of his remarks.
“So let’s have an trustworthy query about what exists in Afghanistan,” Vance mentioned in a video message in August 2021. “In accordance with Pew, 40% of the individuals there imagine that blowing your self up, committing a suicide bombing, is a suitable option to resolve the issue. So, sure, let’s assist the Afghans who helped us, however let’s be certain that we’re correctly vetting them in order that we do not get a bunch of people that imagine they need to blow themselves up in a mall as a result of any individual checked out their spouse the unsuitable manner. That isn’t actual management.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Trump mentioned on the time the U.S. ought to prioritize bringing residence Americans but in addition help Afghans who aided U.S. forces.
“I am America first. Okay? The Individuals come out first. However we’re additionally going to assist those who helped us, and now we have to be very cautious with the vetting, as a result of you may have some tough individuals in there,” he mentioned throughout a 2021 look on Fox Information.
